The Bombay High Court on Friday ordered the Maharashtra government to inform it about the decisions made by the State Mental Health Authority and the steps taken by the government to implement the Mental Health Act 2017.
The bench said that it would be necessary to know the decisions of the authority before issuing any order in the PIL that seeks the implementation of said law.
A division bench of Judge NM Jamdar and Justice Gauri V Godse was hearing a PIL seeking implementation of the Mental Health Act 2017 and investigation of mental health institutions failing to regularly assess the condition of patients for determine if they can be discharged.
The PIL, presented by psychiatrist Dr Harish Shetty, highlighted the plight of institutionalized patients, including a woman who had been “languishing” at the Regional Mental Hospital in Thane for 12 years.
The PIL argued by the lawyer Pranati Mehra affirmed that the implementation of the Law would protect the rights of people with mental illnesses and would allow them to mobilize the review boards to request discharge. The guilty plea also sought implementation of the Supreme Court’s guidelines regarding mental health care homes and mentally ill patients.
On Friday, Advocate General Ashutosh Kumbhakoni and Assistant Government Counsel Manish Pbale, representing the state government, informed the court that while the three-year term of the members of the constituted authority was completed in October 2018, the conducted the process for nominating new members. . Such members are appointed based on a government resolution (GR) issued on September 6, the government said, adding that the committee was operating with a full quorum.
However, he said, the positions of two unofficial nominated members that include representatives of people with mental illness and their caregivers have yet to be filled and announcements have been made about them.
The state government said the state public health department has accepted Shetty’s suggestions. He said a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed on November 23 to harness the help of NGOs to make an effort to try more gatherings of cured patients in mental hospitals.
The court will hear the PIL next Friday, December 2.
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