Mumbai’s high court said on Tuesday it will deal with issues not before the High Court while hearing a PIL from the city’s psychiatrist, Dr. Harish Shetty, seeking to implement the Mental Health Act 2017.
A division bench of Justices SS Shinde and Sarang Kotwal then asked Shetty’s advocate, Pranati Mehra, to separate the matters in the PIL from those before the SC.
Shetty’s PIL has urged the implementation of the Mental Health Act 2017 in Maharashtra saying it protects the rights of mentally ill people and allows them to move Mental Health Review Boards to seek discharge from mental health institutions.
The psychiatrist has highlighted the plight of several patients who have to languish in psychiatric hospitals/institutions even after being cured as their families refuse to take them back.
Mehra told the court that the PIL was inspired by the case of a woman who had spent more than 12 years, including seven years in which her husband refused to accept her, even though she had recovered.
Advocate General Ashutosh Kumbhkoni, representing the state government, advised the court that there is a contempt petition pending at the SC for failure to comply with the SC’s instructions in 2016 related to mental health and the apex is monitoring compliance.
As for the woman’s case, Kumbhkoni said that she had been rehabilitated with her family and husband. “We will be following up with her regularly,” Kumbhkoni said.
However, Mehra said it is necessary to determine responsibility in this case to find out why the government did not take the initiative earlier. “Accountability must be established to prevent such incidents in the future,” Mehra said.
Although Kumbhkoni said the government was not taking it as a contradictory position, Mehra said the SC’s order on state compliance does not talk about reintegrating patients with their families.
HC has saved the PIL for further hearing in June.
(To receive our E-paper on whatsapp every day, please Click here. We allow sharing the PDF of the article on WhatsApp and other social media platforms).
Published on: Tuesday, April 12, 2022, 08:49 pm IST
<!–
–>
.
