HC flags Rs20 lakh security deposit for Chandigarh mental illness home as ‘exorbitant’
In a significant observation underscoring the rights of persons with mentally illnesses to be treated with dignity and without discrimination, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has held the Rs 20 lakh security deposit required for admission into Group Utthaan Society’s Mental Illness Home at Sector 31, Chandigarh, to be “exorbitant”.
Taking a prima facie view that the requirement deprives even the genuinely deserving mental health patients from admission merely due to lack of financial resources, the Division Bench headed by Chief Justice Sheel Nagu and Justice Sumeet Goel directed the UT Chandigarh Administration to urgently reconsider the quantum of the security amount.
The direction came after hearing senior advocate RS Bains and advocates Sarabjeet Singh Cheema, Kshitij Sharma and Shobit Sharma, who had challenged the mandatory deposit on the ground that it violated the provisions of the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017.
Referring to Sections 18 to 21 of the Mental Healthcare Act, the court asserted that every person suffering from mental illness was entitled to be treated “with dignity, reasonableness and without any discrimination.” Testing the Rs 20 lakh deposit on this statutory anvil, the court found the amount to be excessive.
The court also held that the society, which managed the Mental Illness Home, qualified as “State” within the meaning of Article 12 of the Constitution. The Bench recorded that the Society’s governing body comprises 13 members, with the majority being functionaries of the UT Administration, thus bringing it under the constitutional discipline applicable to State entities.
“Since the Governing Body of the Society, which manages the Mental Illness Home, comprises a majority of UT functionaries, it is obvious that this Society is a State under Article 12,” the court observed.
Accordingly, the UT Administration was directed to apply its mind to the appropriateness of the existing policy, with specific reference to the effect the Rs 20 lakh deposit has on accessibility for patients in need.
The Bench directed the Governing Body to convene an emergent meeting to reconsider the security amount, keeping in mind that “several genuine mental health patients” are unable to afford the said sum. The matter will now be heard again on July 24.
