Mumbai In response to a petition filed by a psychiatrist and counsellor, the state government informed the Bombay High Court (HC) that a mental health authority has already been established and a government ruling will be issued by 5 September to formalize it .
The court was assured that the authority would meet and report to the HC to address the issues raised by the petitioner. The next hearing is set for September 29.
The division court of Judge Nitin Jamdar and Judge NR Borkar, while listening to the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by Dr. Harish Shetty, was informed by his attorney Pranati Mehra that many patients languished in psychiatric homes in the state as the Mental Health Act, 2017 has not been properly implemented.
The court was informed that the petitioner not only sought implementation of the 2017 Act, but also sought a status report on all persons admitted to said mental health facilities and compliance with Supreme Court guidelines.
In a previous hearing, the state through additional government attorney Manish Pabale had informed the HC that the State Mental Health Authority had already been constituted in 2018 following the guidelines of the high court and was responsible for registering and supervising all mental health facilities in the state, register clinical psychologists, mental health nurses, psychiatric social workers, and develop service delivery standards for various types of mental health facilities in the state.
Pabale had claimed that the authority was not currently fully operational as many of its members who had completed their terms had not been replaced and the state was in the process of filling the posts that had become vacant.
On Monday, Attorney General Ashutosh Kumbhakoni informed the bank that the State Mental Health Authority had already been constituted and that a GR would be issued on September 5th confirming the same. The bank was also told that the authority would hold a meeting at which Dr. Shetty would also be invited to share his concerns and the same would be included in the minutes of the meeting.
The court accepted the submissions and also ordered the authority to submit a report of their meeting to the HC by September 29.
Dr. Shetty introduced the PIL after encountering a woman who had been languishing in Thane Psychiatric Hospital for the past 12 years. Neither her husband nor her family were willing to accept her, even though her condition was declared “normal” in 2014.
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