SC orders govt policy on rehab of mentally ill

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 threeJudge 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.”