The Kerala High Court has directed the State government to set up a mental health establishment, as stipulated in Section 103(6) of the Mental Healthcare Act, at least in one prison in the State to take care of mentally-ill prisoners.
Justice V.G.Arun also directed the State government to forthwith constitute Mental Health Review Boards under Section 73 of the Mental Health care Act. The boards should ensure that prisoners with mental illness are allowed to live with dignity and treated as equal to persons with physical illness. The transfer of a prisoner with mental illness to a mental health establishment shall only be with prior permission of the Boards.
The court issued the directives in a suo motu case initiated on the basis of newspaper reports on the plight of mentally ill remand prisoners in the State
The court also ordered the Mental Health Review Boards to make available details of the mentally ill remand prisoners detained in jails and mental health establishments to the Kerala State Legal Services Authority so that the Secretary, KELSA may bring deserving cases to the notice of the High Court to enable it to take an appropriate decision on the judicial side.
The court also directed the State government, with the assistance of the KELSA (Kerala Legal Services Authority), to take necessary steps to trace the relatives of acquitted mentally ill prisoners and of the undertrial prisoners fit for rehabilitation and persuade their family members to provide necessary care and protection to those persons.
The court observed that if the family members of the acquitted mentally ill persons refused to take them back, the State government should take steps for their rehabilitation by transferring them to the willing registered mental health establishments.
The court also suggested amendment of the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure in tune with the provisions of the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017. Not only the terminology, words such as ‘lunatic,’ the procedure prescribed in Chapter XXV of the Cr.P.C. had to be amended, the court observed.
