Chennai: Terming a Public Interest Litigation seeking to make public full details about the health condition of the Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa along with her photograph, as a 'Publicity Interest Litigation', the Madras high court Thursday dismissed it. A division bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice R.Mahadevan rejected the PIL filed by social activist Traffic Ramaswamy. The bench said that there is no doubt the health of the Chief Minister would be a concern for the citizens, but then it was pleaded and press reports suggest that medical bulletins were being issued by the hospital. That should suffice rather than any inquisition which the petitioner wants to make into the health of the Chief Minister.
“A balance has to be maintained between the aspects of privacy and public awareness in this behalf. We feel the regular bulletins from the hospital would suffice and it is up to the state to see if some more information is required to be put in the public domain”, the bench added. The bench said the petitioner has pleaded that the Chief Minister was admitted to the hospital with high fever and a press report was released from the hospital that she was on her way to recovery. “Unfortunately, suddenly an expert from London Bridge Hospital, Richard John Beale, has arrived and giving treatment till today” was what was alleged. “In this behalf, we are unable to understand as to what is unfortunate about expert medical opinions sought to be obtained”, the bench added.
The bench said the petitioner claims he was disturbed by the developments while the fact remains that he has filed various public interest litigations, contested elections and was a critic of the current state government. The petitioner stated that there were rumours floating around and the Governor and Central Ministers have visited the hospital, but that does not satisfy him, as the opposition wanted photographs of the Chief Minister to be released. Not only that, the counsel for the petitioner, in fact seeks an alternative interim arrangement by the Governor till the Chief Minister recovers fully, by appointing some kind of ad-hoc CM. “In our view, the petition is nothing but a publicity interest litigation”, the bench added.
