Inoculate inmates with mental illness first: Supreme Court

The bench of justices DY Chandrachud and MR Shah told the Centre to chalk out a plan for all states and Union territories to ensure all persons institutionalised in mental health establishments are vaccinated.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Union government to consider vaccinating mental health establishment inmates against Covid-19 on priority, stressing how vulnerable this section of the population was because it could neither visit a hospital nor be transported to a medical facility.

People sit after getting a dose of the Covishield vaccine against the Covid-19 coronavirus during a vaccination drive at Tagore Hall in Ahmedabad on July 6, 2021. (AFP)

The bench of justices DY Chandrachud and MR Shah told the Centre to chalk out a plan for all states and Union territories to ensure all persons institutionalised in mental health establishments are vaccinated. “Vaccination drive (for Covid-19) must extend to inmates of all mental health establishments as they cannot go to hospitals or be transported. Else, there will be large number of deaths in these institutions,” the bench said.

The court directed the department of social justice to take up this concern immediately with the ministry of health and family welfare so that “suitable instructions are given, and a plan is chalked out” to enable vaccination of all inmates of mental health establishments across the country.

The order came on a contempt petition filed by advocate Gaurav Kumar Bansal, pointing to the death of three inmates at a Maharashtra mental health facility and the urgent need of vaccinating the inmates. He also requested that the plan to be chalked out by the Centre should cover testing, tracing and vaccinating the inmates. There are roughly 13,000 inmates in 43 state-run mental health asylums and hospitals, Bansal said, adding that the number of such patients in private establishments is not known.

On the death of three inmates, Bansal pointed out that it was due to a “blunder” by Maharashtra government to shift the mental asylum inmates, who had recovered, to beggar homes and old age homes (for inmates aged above 60). Maharashtra counsel Sachin Patil sought time to take instructions.