‘Appoint welfare officers to check people in coma’

NEW DELHI: Plugging a gap, Delhi high court asked the state government to appoint welfare officers in each district to check on persons lying in coma, to ensure an oversight system was in place.

The court laid down broad guidelines for such patients who were comatose and were unable to put their finances and assets in order before the tragedy.

Justice Rajiv Shakdher noted that there were no rules and regulations governing the welfare of such persons, stressing the need for guidelines to ensure that the legal guardian in charge of the comatose patient was held accountable.

It directed the department of social welfare of the AAP government to ensure that public officials/social welfare officer or officers of equivalent rank visit patients lying in comatose state and submit a detailed report.

The court said only the spouse or children could be appointed the legal guardian of a person in coma and they must disclose the details of all tangible and intangible assets of the patient. In case the patient had no legal heirs or was abandoned by the family, his next friend could be appointed as a guardian with the prior permission from a court.

HC’s directions came while interpreting various laws — the Guardians and Wards Act, 1890, the Mental Health Act, 1987 (repealed), the National Trust Act for the Welfare of Persons with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation, the Multiple Disabilities Act, 1999, the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017 and the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016. Justice Shakdher said the definitions of these provisions showed a person in coma was not covered under any of the Acts which was why the court needed to step.

The guidelines also include that the sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) or tehsildar concerned, under whose jurisdiction the person lying in coma was located, should conduct an inquiry to establish the veracity of the assertion and to gather details of the person who wished to be appointed as a guardian.

HC said the person appointed as a guardian would file a report with the registrar of the high court after every six months and if the guardian misused his power, siphoned or misutilised the assets of the patient, the court would have the power to remove him and appoint another person.

HC’s order came on a plea filed by daughters of a comatose woman after the State Bank of India refused to release money deposited in a PPF account of their dead father. SBI took the stand that a guardianship certificate had to be obtained from the district court concerned but HC disagreed, and allowed the plea of the daughters. It asked SBI to transfer the amount to the joint account of the two women with their mother, after HC verified from doctors that the mother was comatose and needed expensive treatment.