Wife asks to access ill hubby’s bank a/cs

A woman from Navi Mumbai has approached the Bombay High Court seeking to be appointed as the guardian of her 63-year-old husband, who is comatose, and to be permitted to access his bank accounts.

The woman, in her petition filed earlier this week, sought to be appointed as her husband’s guardian — in the absence of specific legal provisions to deal with the rights of such patients — so that she can use his account to fund his medical care. The high court on Thursday directed the subdivisional magistrate of Thane collectorate to submit a report on the health of the man, who is a retired general manager of a public sector undertaking (PSU).

A division bench headed by Justice S M Kemkar was hearing the woman’s petition claiming that her husband has been comatose for over a month now.

The woman, in her petition, submitted reports of neurologists from Apollo Hospital in Navi Mumbai certifying that her husband was suffering from ‘malignant MCA territory infarction of the brain’ and was “in a persistent vegetative state”.

The bench directed the sub-divisional magistrate from Thane collectorate to visit the couple’s house at Nerul in Navi Mumbai and prepare a report on the man's health condition by tomorrow, when the petition would be heard.