NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court Friday sought a response from the Centre and others on a PIL seeking to establish Mental Health Establishments in prisons across the country.
A bench of Justices S A Nazeer and V Ramasubramanian issued notices to the Centre, all the states, and union territories on a plea filed by lawyer Kush Kalra.
The matter is likely to come up for hearing on October 21.
"The petitioner filed the application under the Right to Information Act, 2005 to know about the establishment of Mental health establishments in prisons in India."
"The petitioner was shocked to know that most of the prisons in India do not have mental health establishments as mandated under section 103(6) of Mental Health Act, 2017," the petition said.
The plea has also sought directions to provide training and awareness to the prison staff and police about the provisions of the Mental Health The PIL stated that mental illness develops suicidal tendencies in prisoners and there is a need to develop sensitivity amongst the jail staff towards the mental health patients in prisons.
It has also sought directions to include the mental health of the arrested person in the medical examination report of the prisoner at the time of admission to the prison.