{"id":213655,"date":"2019-04-17T23:56:06","date_gmt":"2019-04-17T18:26:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/?p=213655"},"modified":"2019-04-18T15:21:53","modified_gmt":"2019-04-18T09:51:53","slug":"post-conviction-mental-health-its-effect-on-sentencing-sc-issues-directions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/2019\/04\/17\/post-conviction-mental-health-its-effect-on-sentencing-sc-issues-directions\/","title":{"rendered":"Post-conviction mental health & it\u2019s effect on sentencing: SC issues directions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Supreme Court<\/strong>: The 3-judge bench of NV Ramana, MM Shantanagoudar and Indira Banerjee, JJ held<\/p>\n

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\u201cit needs to be understood that prisoners tend to have increased affinity to mental illness. Moreover, due to legal constraints on the recognition of broad\u00adspectrum mental illness within the Criminal Justice System, prisons inevitably become home for a greater number of mentally\u00adill prisoners of various degrees. There is no overlooking of the fact that the realities within the prison walls may well compound and complicate these problems.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It said that the aspiration of the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017 was to provide mental health care facility for those who are in need including prisoners. The State Governments are obliged under Section 103 of the Act to setup a mental health establishment in the medical wing of at least one prison in each State and Union Territory, and prisoners with mental illness may ordinarily be referred to andcared for in the said mental health establishment.<\/p>\n

The Court was hearing a case of a death row convict suffering from post-conviction mental illness. He is on death row since almost 17 years for rape and murder of 2 young girls. The Court was, hence, called upon to decide<\/p>\n

\u2022 How culpability be assessed for sentencing those with mental illness?
\n\u2022 Is treatment better suited than punishment?\\<\/p>\n

The Court noticed that there are no set disorders\/disabilities for evaluating the \u2018severe mental illness\u2019, however a \u2018test of severity\u2019 can be a guiding factor for recognizing those mental illness which qualify for an exemption. Therefore,<\/p>\n

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\u201cthe test envisaged herein predicates that the offender needs to have a severe mental illness or disability, which simply means that a medical professional would objectively consider the illness to be most serious so that he cannot understand or comprehend the nature and purpose behind the imposition of such punishment. These disorders generally include schizophrenia, other serious psychotic disorders, and dissociative disorders\u00adwith schizophrenia.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Test of severity of post-conviction mental disability<\/span><\/h4>\n