Bombay HC Appoints Daughters As Guardians Of Bed-Ridden Father In 'State Of Lunacy' Under Rare Legal Provision

Mumbai: The Bombay High Court has appointed two daughters as guardians of their 73-year-old bed-ridden father, who suffered a brain injury following a cardiac arrest in 2024. The injury resulted in oxygen and blood deprivation to the brain, leaving him in a semi-conscious and incapacitated state. Observing that the man is incapable of caring for himself or managing his property, the court noted he was in a “state of lunacy.”

A bench of Justice Abhay Ahuja, on May 8, said, “The higher courts of our country exercise the ‘parens patriae’ jurisdiction (legal protector of citizens unable to protect themselves) as they cannot be mute spectators to a real life situation of the nature before this Court.”

The petition, initially filed under the Guardian and Wards Act—which allows the appointment of guardians for minors—was later amended to invoke Clause XVII of the Letters Patent. This provision empowers the High Court to intervene in cases concerning the person and property of “infants, idiots and lunatics.”

A Letters Patent is a special law from which a High Court derives its jurisdiction and prevails over general laws. Under Clause XVII, the High Court has the authority to act in cases involving individuals incapable of managing themselves or their affairs due to mental infirmity.

The daughters approached the High Court stating that their father is unable to communicate or even meet his basic personal needs. The court, upon reviewing the medical condition of the senior citizen, concluded that he was suffering from a form of mental illness resulting from the cardiac event.

The bench clarified that the condition was not one of mental retardation and could not be described as idiocy. “However, it can be said that this is a case of mental illness although the same may have arisen as a result of a cardiac arrest,” Justice Ahuja said.

“Lunacy refers to unsoundness of mind sufficient to incapacitate a person from civil transactions. It can also refer to a mental disorder as described in the definition of mental illness,” the judge observed.

Referring to the Mental Healthcare Act, the court said mental illness includes substantial disorders of thinking or orientation that grossly impair judgment and the ability to handle ordinary life demands.

Finding that the man required constant care and attention and was incapable of understanding or making informed decisions, the court concluded that he was in a state of lunacy and, therefore, under Clause XVII of the Letters Patent, it had the jurisdiction to appoint his daughters as his legal guardians.