PIL seeks health status of Chief Minister

Is Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalithaa conscious and in good health to take important decisions and to hold discussions with ministers and officials? Raising this question, social activist Traffic Ramasamy has filed a PIL in Madras high court for a direction to the principal secretary to Tamil Nadu governor, chief secretary, home secretary and others, besides Apollo Hospitals, to file a health status report along with her photograph in court.

On Monday morning, Ramasamy mentioned the matter before a division bench of Justice M M Sundresh and Justice R Mahadevan, seeking urgent hearing of his PIL. After the bench gave its nod, he got the matter numbered. It is likely to be taken up for hearing on Tuesday.

Jayalalithaa was admitted in Apollo Hospitals on September 22 for 'fever and dehydration', and since then, she has been under intense treatment. The hospital issues periodical medical bulletins about the chief minister's health, and on Sunday, the hospital said she was being treated for infection and that she was responding well to antibiotics. It said an expert, Dr Richard Beale, had been flown from London and that he concurred with the line of treatment at the hospital.