Suriia Das works as an Operations Manager, and has resorted to borrowing money from moneylenders, his family, friends, company and even turned to crowdfunding to fund his wife's cancer treatment.
47 year-old Sarojini Jayapal suffers from Stage 4 Ovarian cancer which was diagnosed in 2016.
In the interview with RAVision, a human rights broadcast system by lawyer M Ravi, Suriia Das mentioned that he brought his wife to Mount Elizabeth hospital for help. After hearing about the news of cancer, they went to the National University Hospital (NUH) for a second opinion. However, NUH turned them away. They had no choice but to go back to Mount Elizabeth as they were the only ones who wanted to help Suriia and his wife.
Both their medisave account has since been drained and the husband's appeal to use the money from his ordinary/special CPF accounts have been rejected. M Ravi has agreed to help the couple pro bono.
M Ravi said that
This case engages section 18(d) of the CPF Act which allows, for example, a CPF member like Suriia to transfer a portion of his monies from his Ordinary and Special accounts to his loved one’s account
this discretion is subject to the CPF Board’s policy that it allows only for the transfer to be made to someone, or the loved one, to be of 55-years of age and above
to impose a minimum age like in this case of a loved one suffering from cancer would be irrational in the administrative law sense and hence the policy is unlawful
He also mentioned that this policy deprives Sarojini of her right to life guaranteed under Article 9 of the Constitution.
You can watch the full video below:
All the money in the world can't make the husband happy if the wife is dying. Why not let him use his CPF monies which is supposed to be his in the first place?
