New Delhi: In an important judgment, the Kerala high court on August 13 asked the state government to set up a mental health establishment in at least one prison in the state for the well-being of mentally ill prisoners who have been held in prisons and mental health centres for several years.According to Bar and Bench, Justice V.G. Arun passed the order in a suo motu case, saying that Section 103(6) of the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017 stipulates the state government to set up a mental health establishment. The court considered a report by the secretary of the Kerala State Legal Services Authority (KELSA), a statement by the government and relevant provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) and the Mental Healthcare Act.It issued seven interim directions, according to Bar and Bench, which were:i) The state government shall immediately set up a mental health establishment, as stipulated by Section 103(6) of the Mental Healthcare Act, in at least one prison in the state. Prisoners with mental illness shall ordinarily be referred to and cared for in the mental health establishment.ii) The government shall forthwith constitute Mental Health Review Boards under Section 73 of the Mental Healthcare Act, the composition of which shall be in accordance with Section 74 of the Act.iii) The medical officers of prisons and mental health establishments shall strictly comply with the duties imposed on them under Section 103 of the Mental Healthcare Act.iv) The Mental Health Review Boards shall ensure that prisoners with mental illness are allowed to live with dignity and treated as equal to persons with physical illness.v) The Mental Health Review Boards shall make available details of the mentally ill remand prisoners detained in jails and mental health establishments to KELSA. Based on the details thus received, the secretary, KELSA may bring deserving cases to the notice of the high court, to enable it to take an appropriate decision on the judicial side.vi) The state government shall, with the assistance of the KELSA, take necessary steps to trace the relatives of acquitted mentally ill prisoners and of the undertrial prisoners fit for rehabilitation and persuade their family members to provide necessary care and protection to those persons. If the family members of the acquitted mentally ill persons refuse to take them back, the state government shall take steps for their rehabilitation by transferring them to a registered mental health establishment. Once the mentally ill acquitted person is shifted to a mental health establishment, which shall receive Rs 39,660 from the government.vii) The special secretary, Social Justice Department shall file a report specifying the steps taken in terms of these directions.Importantly, the high court said that provisions of the CrPC are yet to be amended to fall in line with provisions of the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017. Justice Arun said that in most Sections of Chapter XXV of the Code, mentally ill persons accused are still termed as “lunatics” and a mental health establishment is described as “lunatic asylum”.The order says that these provisions must be amended in accordance with the Mental Healthcare Act. The court adds:“Not only the terminology, the procedure prescribed in Chapter XXV has to be amended, to make the provisions commensurate with the provisions of the Mental Healthcare Act, so as to achieve the laudable objective of the Act, viz., to make improve the life and living standards of persons with mental illness.”The court was informed that as of August 2020, there were 77 convicts or remand prisoners who were undergoing treatment in government mental health centres in Kerala. Of these, 22 had been acquitted but were still being hosted at such centres.Out of the remaining 55 prisoners, 48 were undertrials and seven were convicts.The state government said that it had framed a scheme for the rehabilitation of mentally ill prisoners who are housed in mental health centres even after their acquittal. Psycho-Social Rehabilitation Centres that express a willingness to look after such persons would be provided Rs 39,660 per year.The high court said that the Mental Health Act, 2017 has made community living the right of every mentally ill person and also that it guarantees the right to protection from cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.The provisions of the Act, “if implemented in its letter and spirit” will undoubtedly provide solace to the mentally ill persons, including the mentally ill prisoners, the judge observed, according to Bar and Bench.The matter will be taken up again in three months.