The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the Centre to formulate the guidelines for the assistance of those who have been cured of their mental illness, PTI reported. The apex court noted that people who had been cured of mental illness were not accepted even by their family members after treatment.

Stating that it was a very “sensitive issue”, the bench headed by Chief Justice JS Khehar said people who had been treated should not continue to live in a psychiatric facility. “You will have to frame a policy,” the apex court said.

The court was hearing a petition filed by advocate GK Bansal, who had alleged that about 300 persons from several psychiatric facilities in Uttar Pradesh had been treated but were still suffering. The bench asked the Centre to present a model scheme that will then be put to the state governments.

Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar, representing the Centre, sought some time and said the Ministry of Health along with the Ministry of Social Justice will work towards such a scheme. The court agreed to give the Centre eight weeks’ time.

Bansal, in his PIL, had sought the directions to states to make arrangements to shift the patients who had recovered to another secure place such as old age homes.