Inspect jails to ascertain if people with mental health issues are lodged there: HC | Madurai News

mental health issues are lodged there: HC Madurai: Madras high court on Friday expressed anguish over the illegal custody of a man suffering from chronic mental health condition who was acquitted from a murder case by a trial court in 2016, languishing in Trichy Central Prison for the past 10 years. The court then directed the state to constitute a team to inspect all the jails across the state to ascertain whether there are any such similar cases where the accused who have been acquitted or have already suffered sentence and who face such mental disorders continue to remain in prisons.The court was hearing a petition filed by a man seeking to set at liberty his brother who is confined at Trichy Central Prison. The petitioner’s brother who suffers from paranoid schizophrenia was accused of murdering his mother over a quarrel in Ariyalur district in 2016.In September 2016, the fast track mahila court, Ariyalur, concluded that he is suffering from chronic mental health condition and hence, acquitted him from all charges. The court then directed him to be detained in Trichy Central Prison until the state government decides to deliver the accused to any of his friends or relatives.A division bench of justice N Anand Venkatesh and justice K K Ramakrishnan observed that the grievance expressed by the petitioner is that for the last 10 years, his brother continues to be inside the prison. This is the height of violation under Article 21 of the Constitution.“If really the concerned person is suffering from a chronic mental health condition and therefore, to ensure his protection and the interest of the society, he has to be placed in a mental health institute and he can never be detained in a jail. Hence, the fact that the petitioner’s brother had continued to languish in a jail for the last 10 years tantamounts to illegal custody for 10 years,” the judges observed.The judges observed that the present case on the face of it warrants the payment of compensation for illegal custody. Hence, the judges directed the Tamil Nadu home secretary and the director general of prisons and correctional services to constitute a team and take the help of the legal services authority to make an inspection in all the jails across the state to ascertain the facts and file a report.