The Delhi High Court has said that it expects the state of Delhi to ensure sufficient number of short-stay and long-stay homes for persons with mental illness who do not require regular hospitalisation and who have no homes to go back to live in “a safe, congenial and pleasant environment”. A division bench of Justice Mukta Gupta and Justice Poonam A Bamba Monday underscored that “it is bounden duty of state to take care of the life of all its citizen” while modifying a woman’s conviction order – from murder to culpable homicide not amounting to murder – and sentence. Referring to a 2005 decision of the coordinate bench of the HC in Charanjit Singh & Others v State and others, the bench said that it “hopes and expects” as per the directions passed in the said judgment that the “state will ensure sufficient number of short-stay homes and long-stay homes for people with mental illness who do not require regular hospitalisation and who have no homes to go back to live in a safe, congenial and pleasant environment”. In the 2005 judgment, the HC had directed the state to create short- or long-stay homes for persons suffering from mental illness who do not need hospitalisation. On Monday, the HC directed, “Since appellant is not in a position to take care of herself even though schizophrenia is in remission at the moment nor does any of her family members inclined to look after her, it is the duty of the State to take adequate care of. such. patients, for which purpose short/ long stay homes have been set up. Consequently, appellant will continue to stay in the long stay home at Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences (IHBAS) and expenses of all necessary treatment and stay of the appellant will be borne by the state.” The HC directed that a copy of the decision be sent to the Principal Secretary (Home) and Principal Secretary (Health) of the Delhi government, Director General (Prisons) and Medical Superintendent, IHBAS for “necessary compliance”. The woman was convicted by trial court for alleged murder of her husband by inflicting knife injuries and causing grievous hurt to her husband’s daughter from first marriage and sentenced to life imprisonment in 2010. During the trial, the woman was diagnosed with schizophrenia and has been undergoing treatment at IHBAS since 2009.
