People have right to info on Tamil Nadu CM's health: Madras High Court

Chennai: The Madras high court on Tuesday observed that the people of TN have the right to know the health status of the Chief Minister since she is in a responsible position governing the affairs of the state.

Accepting the submission of Additional advocate general C. Manishankar that information about her health is a matter of privacy and it cannot be made public, the bench observed, “She is in a responsible position governing the state, the people must be provided the status about her health”.

A division bench comprising Justices M.M. Sundresh and R.Mahadevan made the above observation orally on an urgent mention made by social activist Traffic Ramaswamy to take up his PIL early, which sought to make public full details about the health condition of Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa along with her photograph.

Additional advocate general submitted that the hospital authorities were constantly updating about her health condition through press releases. The bench said "Hospital management might issue press releases, but why did not the authorities provide the information to the public? The authorities are duty bound to update the people".

Making it clear that they were not passing any orders, the bench asked the additional advocate general to get instructions from the authorities. The bench said it will take up the PIL for hearing on Thursday.

In his PIL, Ramaswamy also sought an interim direction to consider appointing an Interim Chief Minister, if the Chief Minister needs rest for a long time, to attend the routine work of Chief Minister till she gets fully recovered.