SC adds NHRC to PIL for law on mental health care

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday directed the National Human Right Commission to be made a party to the PIL for the implementation of a 2017 law on safeguarding the rights and needs of persons with mental illnesses.

A bench comprising Justices P S Narasimha and Atul S Chandurkar asked petitioner Gaurav Kumar Bansal to file an application to make rights body NHRC a party to the PIL filed in 2018.

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The bench said the PIL may be transferred to the NHRC for implementing the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017. Bansal said a committee headed by a former apex court judge could be set up to oversee the implementation.

“We cannot create a parallel mechanism just because the existing system has any flaws,” the bench said.

The bench, in the meantime, asked Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, representing the Centre, to share its affidavit with Bansal and posted the hearing after three weeks.

The bench had previously said Parliament enacted the Mental Healthcare Act in 2017 which contemplates establishment of “Central Mental Health Authority (CMHA), State Mental Health Authority (SMHA) and Mental Health Review Board (MHRB)”.

The top court on March 2 directed Centre to file an affidavit indicating the establishment and functioning of the Central Mental Health Authority, State Mental Health Authority and Mental Health Review Board.

The affidavit was further ordered to show the statutory and mandatory appointments to the authority and the review board.

On January 3, 2019, the apex court issued notices to the Centre, all states and Union Territories on the petition which has claimed that non-implementation of provisions of the Act by the states and UTs was a gross violation of life and liberty of the citizens.

Taking note of an incident, the bench said chaining people with mental illness was violative of their rights under Article 21 of the Constitution, which deals with life and personal liberty, and their dignity cannot be compromised.

The PIL argued persons with mental illnesses were chained in a faith-based mental asylum in Budaun district of Uttar Pradesh in violation of provisions of the Mental Health Care Act 2017.

The court examined the photos of such patients calling it a matter of great concern.

The PIL said chaining a person suffering from mental illness was a blatant violation of a provision of the 2017 Act which says that every such person shall not only have a right to live with dignity but he or she shall be protected from cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.

Referring to the National Mental Health Survey 2016, he has claimed that around 14 per cent of India’s population requires active mental health interventions and around 2 per cent Indians were suffering from severe mental disorders.

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