Wife awarded custody of comatose man after 11 years, over father's claim

In a significant legal decision, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has granted custody of a man who has been in a coma for over 11 years to his wife, rejecting the claims of his elderly father. The dispute between family members escalated when a Motor Accident Claims Tribunal (MACT) awarded a compensation of ₹3 crore in 2018 due to an accident in 2011 that left the man comatose.

The court, in its ruling, noted that there was no lack of affection from either party towards the comatose man. Instead, the primary cause of the controversy appeared to be a dispute over the awarded compensation.

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The court's decision entails that the husband will remain in the custody of his wife, and the father can visit him once a month. Additionally, the compensation amount will be utilized for the welfare of the comatose man and his immediate family members.

Father's concerns and wife's care

The father from Rajasthan had alleged that his son was in the illegal custody of his daughter-in-law, expressing concerns about the safety of his son. He also raised issues of an alleged illicit relationship between his daughter-in-law and another man, which she had revealed in an FIR.

The wife, on the other hand, claimed that she had been caring for her husband since 2011 until September 2022, when she and her daughters were forcibly removed from their matrimonial house. The court recognized that while there were concerns from both sides, it couldn't ignore the fact that the wife had been taking care of her husband for over a decade.

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In the end, the court's decision aimed to balance the interests of both parties in this complex and unusual case, where a man in a coma became the center of a custody dispute that revolved around significant compensation.