The Madras High Court Bench here has directed an Indian woman living in Singapore to fly down to Tirunelveli along with her mentally challenged daughter and produce the latter before the Principal District Court on June 3 since the opponents in a partition suit, filed by her in 2007, had disputed the claim of her daughter suffering from mental illness.
Disposing of a civil revision petition filed by the respondents in the partition suit, Justice K.K. Sasidharan set aside an order passed by the Principal District Court on December 22 accepting a plea made by the power agent of the two women to appoint Kamarunisha as the ‘mother and next friend’ of her mentally challenged daughter Saira Hamza (names changed) in the suit proceedings.
The judge said that the lower court order could not be sustained as it had been passed without considering objections raised by the opponents. Hence, he directed the Principal District Judge to examine the woman who was reportedly suffering from mental illness and then pass appropriate orders on the same day of her production since she had to come all the way from Singapore.
Initially, the civil revision petitioners had claimed that even the power agent, A. Abdul Ghani, through whom the suit had been filed, was a fictitious person. Hence, Mr. Justice Sasidharan directed him to be present in the court. Accordingly, he appeared before the court and submitted that the mother of the mentally challenged woman had no objection to produce her daughter before the lower court.
He also submitted that the mother had been recognised as the ‘next friend’ of her daughter even by the Supreme Court of Singapore.
Opponents in a partition suit, filed by her in 2007,
had disputed the claim of her daughter suffering from mental illness
