Annual Report - National Human Rights Commission

Right to Health
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up to a great extent. Matters concerning criminal patients received from jails need greater care
and concern.
7.50 Special Rapporteur has brought to the Commission’s notice cases of mentally
challenged prisoners languishing in the jails/hospitals for periods ranging from 28 to 54
years even after being declared fit for discharge. The Commission’s intervention has resulted
in discharge of three of them and also their restoration to their families. The family of the
fourth has also been contacted and found willing to take her back. The case of Machang
Lalung deserves specific mention. He was admitted on 14.4.1951 at the age of 23 years as
a UTP of Guwahati Jail u/s 326 IPC. His file shows that the Board of Visitors had written to
the Magistrate, Kamrup Guwahati on 9.8.67 informing that Machang Lalung was fit to
stand trial and defend himself. On 10.8.67, the Medical Suprintendent wrote to the Secretary
to the Government of Assam saying that he was fit for trial and should be taken back to the
jail. The Secretary wrote back on 5.9.67 asking for full particulars of his case. No reply was
sent and the matter was forgotten. On 3.11.94 he was declared fit in a letter addressed to the
CJM, Guwahati. Nothing happened. The file then shows a letter dated 2.2.02 from the
Secretary to the Government of Assam to the Suprintendent, Jail, Guwahati asking him to
go through the jail records and produce the UTP before the Magistrate. Nothing was heard
from that end until the Special Rapporteur saw this man quietly working in the hospital
garden on 31-03-2005. Medical Suprintendent informed that he was not on any psycho
tropic medicines for the past several years and is free of any active signs of mental illness.
No one had come to see him during the last 40 years. Pursuant to a notice 198 issued to the
I.G. Prisons and the Chief Secretary, Government of Assam by the Commission on 31-5-
05, Machang Lalung was transferred from Mental Hospital to the Central Jail Guwahati on
27-6-05 and produced before the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Kamrup for trial. On 1-7-05,
CJM Kamrup released him on personal bond of Rupee one and handed him to the custody
and care of his nephew Badan Pato.
I] Core Group on Mental Health
7.51 The Management of the mental hospitals at Ranchi, Agra and Gwalior came under the
scrutiny of the Hon’ble Supreme Court through Writ Petitions (C) No.339/96, No.901/93,
No.80/94 and No.448/94 filed by Social activists. The Hon’ble Supreme Court in its order
dated 11-11-1997 requested the National Human Rights Commission to be involved in the
supervision of the functioning of these three hospitals. In pursuance of the Order of the Hon’ble
Supreme Court, the Commission has been monitoring the functioning of these hospitals through
its Special Rapporteur.
7.52 As mentioned in the preceding reports, the Commission had constituted an Expert Group
on 31-12-2001 for rehabilitation of long stay patients who are languishing in the mental hospitals
at Agra, Gwalior and Ranchi even after having been cured of mental illness. These patients
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