The Supreme Court on Friday sought the response of Leila Kabir, wife of George Fernandes, to a petition by his political associate Jaya Jaitly that sought permission to visit the former Defence Minister, who has been suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.
A Bench of Justices P. Sathasivam and Ranjan Gogoi issued notice on the ‘visitation rights’ sought by Ms. Jaitly, who challenged the Delhi High Court’s April 17 judgment that she had no legal right to make the claim.
The Bench granted two weeks to Ms. Kabir to file her response.
Ms. Jaitly said she was a close personal and political colleague of Mr. Fernandes for more than 30 years, and “through numerous surgeries, she was always by his side.”
Limited access
Though Mr. Fernandes was married, he had lived separately from his wife for around 27 years, she said. After he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and his condition started deteriorating, his wife Leila Kabir Fernandes suddenly moved into his house. She was given limited access, from October 2010 till August 2011, to him; thereafter, she was denied access. Whenever Mr. Fernandes was awake, he was pleased and happy to see the petitioner and his responses and demeanour improved markedly.
She said she filed an application for impleadment as co-plaintiffs with Mr. Fernandes’ brothers and, with their consent, to seek access similar to the one granted to them that continued today. These applications were dismissed.
She said: “Mr. Fernandes was always pleased and happy to have the petitioner by his side on all matters, whether political, social or domestic…” The trust reposed by him in her was evident from the numerous letters he wrote to her over the years.
