May 3, 2019:
Supreme Court has indicated that name of mentally ill person should not be disclosed and should not be used in the judgments of the courts.
A three judges bench of Justice Ramana, Justice Santanagoudar and Justice Banerjee has passed the judgment in case titled Accused X vs State of Maharashtra on 12.04.2019.
A petition was filed praying for the reopening of Review Petition (Crl.) No. 301 of 2008 to review the final Judgment and Order dated 16.05.2008 passed by this Court in Criminal Appeal No. 680 of 2007 dismissing the appeal filed by the Review Petitioner and confirming his conviction under Sections 201, 363, 376 and 302 of the Indian Penal Code (in short, “the IPC”). Vide the impugned judgment, Supreme Court upheld the sentence of 2 years’ rigorous imprisonment each under Sections 201 and 363, 10 years’ rigorous imprisonment under Section 376 and the death sentence under Section 302, IPC imposed upon the Petitioner. Review Petition was earlier dismissed. Lateron with the change of review law through another judgment, the present miscellaneous application was filed for rehearing of review petition. The Supreme Court found that the petition raises complex questions concerning the relationship between mental illness and crime. How can culpability be assessed for sentencing those with mental illness? Is treatment better suited than punishment? These are some of the questions we need to reflect upon in this case at hand.
It is in this context that the Supreme Court made the pertinent observation about non disclosure of identity. It observed “In line with Section 23 (1) of the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017, (Act 10 of 2017) and the right to privacy of the accused herein, while taking further action on this judgment, we direct the Registry to not disclose the actual name of the accused and other pertinent information which could lead to his identification as it concerns confidential information. In this context we shall address the accused herein as ‘accused x’.”
Relevant provision of the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017 may be noted herein after for ready reference.
Section-23(1) “A person with mental illness shall have the right to confidentiality in respect of his mental health, mental healthcare, treatment and physical healthcare”.
Section-24(1) “No photograph or any other information relating to a person with mental illness undergoing treatment at a mental health establishment shall be released to the media without the consent of the person with mental illness. (2) The right to confidentiality of person with mental illness shall also apply to all information stored in electronic or digital format in real or virtual space”.
Read the judgment here:
Read the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017 here:
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