Mental asylum: SC asks chief secretaries of 4 states to submit data of cured people

The Supreme Court Friday asked chief secretaries of four states and administrators of two Union Territories to provide in four weeks the data of people who have recovered from mental illness and are fit to go home, but languishing in hospitals.

The top court said the data should be provided to the Centreto enable it to prepare a roadmap for setting up rehabilitation homes for suchpeople.

   

A bench of justices D Y Chandrachud and Hemant Gupta hasasked the chief secretaries of Arunachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Nagalandand Telangana to furnish all the relevant details to the Ministry of SocialJustice and Empowerment for formulation of a proper roadmap.

It also asked administrators of Dadra and Nagar Haveli andDaman and Diu to furnish the details in four weeks to the Centre.

Petitioner advocate Gaurav Kumar Bansal informed the courtthat there was non-compliance of its last order and some states have notprovided the necessary data to the Centre.

The Counsel appearing for the Centre also submitted thatfour states and two Union Territories have not yet submitted the requisitedetails.

The bench said that if the chief secretaries andadministrators fail to comply with the direction to furnish the data in fourweeks then it may be constrained to ask them to appear in person before it.

The apex court had on February 25 directed chief secretariesof all the states and Union Territories to hold a meeting in four weeks withthe Union health secretary to chalk out a roadmap for setting up rehabilitationhomes for people who have recovered from mental illness and were fit to go homebut are languishing in hospitals.

It had directed the Union Ministry of Health and FamilyWelfare to appoint a nodal officer to conduct the meeting.

It had said that the data provided by the states mustinclude a roadmap regarding setting up of rehabilitation homes and based on itthe Union ministry will prepare a report to be submitted in the apex court.

Bansal in his plea has said that around 10,000 people, whoare fit to be discharged, are forced to live in different mental hospitals andinstitutes due to social stigma.

On October 3 last year, the apex court had sought reportsfrom all the states and Union Territories on the status of setting uprehabilitation homes for people with mental illness.

Bansal had earlier said that except for few, many states andUTs have not complied with the order of July 10, 2017, in which they were askedto implement the guidelines prepared by the Centre within one year period.

States and UTs which have filed their response includeGujarat, Tamil Nadu, Meghalaya, Punjab, Nagaland, West Bengal, Telangana,Tripura, Delhi, Puducherry and Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

The apex court had taken on record the guidelines for thestate governments for setting up rehabilitation homes for persons living withmental illness framed by the Department of Empowerment of Persons withDisabilities of the Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.

The apex court had asked the Union ministry to circulate theguidelines to all the state governments and UTs with a direction to implementthem within one year.

It had also directed the state governments to comply withthe provisions of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016.

Earlier, the apex court had favoured framing of a uniformnational policy to deal with those suffering from mental illness and theirrelease from hospitals after being cured.It had said that the issue concerned figured inthe concurrent list of the Constitution and hence the Centre also has theauthority to frame norms.

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