Supreme Court orders govt policy on rehab of mentally ill

New Delhi: Expressing serious concern about the plight of mentally ill patients staying in hospitals even after they are cured, the Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the Centre to submit a national policy for their rehabilitation within eight weeks.

The Chief Justice of India, heading a three-Judge bench, said, “It is a very, very sensitive issue. You (Centre) should apply your mind. When a person goes to a mental asylum and after treatment he is cured, nobody is willing to take him back to home. You should think over it. You cannot allow a person to be kept in a mental asylum or a nursing home after he or she is fully cured of the ailment. They have to be brought back to civil society. You will have to frame a policy. It is very easily achievable… give us a model scheme. We will then put it to the state governments and ask them to follow.”

The bench was hearing a PIL about the plight of 300 people languishing in various mental hospitals in Uttar Pradesh even after they have been cured.