the goan I network
PANAJI
The Bombay High Court at Goa on Thursday dismissed the petition seeking public disclosure of ailing Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar’s health status and censured the underlying political overtones of the litigation filed by Trajano D’Mello.
A Division Bench of the High Court upheld Parrikar’s right to privacy and also ruled that ill-health does not disqualify an incumbent from occupying a Constitutional post.
The order also censured the petitioner for hiding his own political hue and approaching the court under the “public interest” garb.
The Bench comprising Justices Prithiraj Chavan and R M Borde termed the petition as “not at all appreciable” and an attempt to make “serious inroads in the territory of privacy of an individual”.
The High Court order also said that ill-health does not make a constitutional authority incapable to occupy the Constitutional post and political rivals have to adopt “democratic method” to unsettle the political power.
“The constitutional position he occupies on account of his proven majority before the House of Legislature, and any individual who has rival political interest has to adopt a democratic method to unsettle the political power,” the order said. It said, seeking that Parrikar be examined by a panel of doctors and then make the report public is an outrageous overstepping of an individual’s privacy which is impermissible in law.
“There is no legislation in place which can form foundation of the claim raised in the petition,” the Bench further said in its order.
It also raised technical issues with the petition saying seeking information which deals with the privacy of the Chief Minister, without making him a party to the petition could not be entertained.
Taking exception to the petition’s underlying motives of political nature, the High Court order said: “The litigation initiated under the garb of public interest litigation shall have to be categorised, as has been branded by the Supreme Court, either as a ‘publicity interest litigation’ or a ‘private interest litigation’ or a ‘political interest litigation’.”
Parrikar has been battling advanced pancreatic cancer since February for which he has been treated at the globally acclaimed Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre in New York. He has also received treatment at hospitals in Mumbai and Goa including Goa Medical College.
He also spent over a month in treatment at the AIIMS Delhi and returned from there in mid-October. The Opposition Congress, various civil society groups and other political adversaries launched an onslaught of criticism for holding on to the Chief Minister’s post despite his ill-health which they claimed adversely affected governance.
