Educationals

Three types of admission can be made through a reception order. An order under:

• Section 30 of the Prisoner's Act, 1900 (Act III of 1900)
  Criminals who later became mentally ill during imprisonment.
• Section 330 of the Code of Criminal Procedure,1973 (Act I of 1974)
  (Under-trial prisoners):Persons who have committed the crime but are not in a position to stand trial because of impaired mental functions.
• Section 335 of the Criminal Procedure Code: Persons who have committed crimes due to mental illness. They are not guilty because of their mental illness, hence they are not given punishment but are acquitted and admitted to a psychiatric hospital for treatment (guilty but insane.)

Special admission procedures for military persons

• Section 144 of the Air Force Act, 1950
• Section 145 of the Army Act, 1950
• Section 143 or 144 of the Navy Act, 1957

The Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985

(The NDPS Act)

The NDPS Act, 1985 and the NDPS (Amendment) Act, 1988 provide legislative measures to control operations relating to narcotic drugs and psychotropic substance and to implement the provisions of the international convention in the matter.

The act is comprehensive and supercedes all previous Acts (Opium Act, 1857) Opium Act, 1878,(Dangerous Drugs Act, 1930) in this regard. It consists of eight chapters and 122 sections.

The Act includes narcotic drugs (cannabis, cocaine, coca leaf, opium, poppy straw and all manufactured drugs) and psychotropic substances. (76 drugs and their derivatives are listed in the Schedule eg: diazepam pentazocine, phenobarbitone etc.)

If any person produces, possess, transports, imports, exports, sells, purchases or uses any narcotic drugs or psychotropic substance he shall be punishable with:

• Rigorous imprisonment (RI) for not less than 10 years (which may extend to 20 years), and
• A fine of not less than 1 lakh rupees (which may extend to 2 lakh rupees).

Punishment for a repeat offence is a RI for not less than 15 years and a fine of not less than 1.5 lakh rupees.

Punishment for Ganja handling is a RI for 5 years and/or a fine of 0.5 lakh rupees. For a repeat offence, the imprisonment may extend to 10 years and the fine of one lakh rupees.

There is also a provision for detoxication through a Court Order.

A later amendment, the prevention of illicit traffic in NDPS Act has also been passed (Act 46 of 1988). There is now a provision for preventive detention and seizure of property. The maximum punishment is death penalty, if a person is found to be trafficking more than or equal to one kilogram of pure heroin.

It is ironical that even though stringent laws are available, the implementation is not effective due to various reasons.

Civil rights of the mentally ill

Due to global human right concerns, efforts have been made to safeguard the human rights of the mentally ill. A person who is supposed to look after the mentally ill person and who does not take proper care and shows cruelty, may be summoned by the court, on receipt of such an information either from the public or police. Stringent punishment has also been provided for those who subject the mentally ill to physical and mental indignity while in hospital. It has also been stated that the mentally ill person will not be used in research except after obtaining proper consent from him and any communication or correspondence in any form shall not be usually be censored or intercepted.

In the statement of objects and reasons of the Mental Health Bill, 1981, it has been stated that "it is now realized no stigma should be attached to such illness as it is curable" and that "the mentally ill persons are to be treated like other sick persons and the environment around them should be made as normal as possible."

It has been suggested by WHO (Curren & Harding, 1978) that "consideration be given to the need to provide effective management policy and whether the institution is publicly or privately owned."

Some critics feel that "institution brings in its wake a series of violations of basic human rights. Examined from the point of view of the inmates, some of the obvious restrictions of freedom are, removal from society, loss of privacy, forced social behaviour".

The right to refuse treatment was, and remains, at the heart of most controversy. Discussions of patients' rights should include at a minimum, some consideration of each of the following topics:

• The right to treatment.
• The right to refuse treatment
• Involuntary civil commitment, and
• Competence (Callanom,91).