Delhi HC appoints wife as legal guardian of comatose man, cites legal vacuum

The Delhi High Court has appointed a woman as the legal guardian of her husband, who has been in a vegetative and comatose state since February 2025 following a severe intracranial haemorrhage, to safeguard his welfare and estate.

The court’s December 31 decision came after the woman approached it seeking guardianship over all matters relating to her husband’s medical care, finances and assets. The couple has two children.

According to the petition, her husband was diagnosed with a serious brain haemorrhage on February 9, 2025, and underwent emergency life-saving surgery at a hospital in the Capital. He was later discharged on April 11, 2025. Since then, he has remained unconscious and in a vegetative state, requiring a tracheostomy tube for breathing and a Ryle tube for feeding, and is under constant care at his residence.

The court noted that her husband is incapable of taking any independent decisions or carrying out activities on his own. In such circumstances, the court held that the appointment of a legal guardian was necessary for his welfare.

Relying on a series of earlier judgments, the court reiterated that there is a clear statutory vacuum in existing laws, including the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, and the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017, with regard to the appointment of guardians for persons in a vegetative or comatose state.

Allowing the petition, the court appointed the wife as his legal guardian. It granted her the authority to take decisions relating to his medical treatment, caretaking, daily expenditures and finances, and permitted her to manage and deal with his movable and immovable assets for meeting his medical and daily needs.