Don’t make special kids travel for assessment test, HC tells TN govt

CHENNAI: Lauding the Tamil Nadu government’s Illam Thedi Kalvi (Education at doorsteps) scheme, the Madras High Court observed that the same model shall be implemented for the process of assessing the mentally retarded for providing disability certificates to them.

“Section 18(5)(d) of the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017 states that the appropriate government shall ensure that no person with mental illness (including children and older persons) shall be required to travel long distances to access mental health services and such services shall be available close to a place where a person with mental illness resides,” Justice GR Swaminathan held.

The judge passed the directions on disposing of a plea filed by TR Ramanathan, a resident of West Mambalam. The petitioner prayed for a direction to the Tamil Nadu State Mental Health Authority to issue a mental disability certificate to his 61-year-old son based on the assessment done by the institute on April 26.

When community certificates are received at the doorstep, can the State not apply the same model in the case of persons with disabilities also? the judge asked. “The bureaucracy of the Indian state is described as its steel frame. It must be malleable enough to reach out and address the needs of the last person,” Justice Swaminathan noted. The petitioner submitted that the institute while asking his son to be physically present before the doctors on April 26, again asked him to come back for another test.

“To take my son for assessment, a group of paramedical staff literally bundled the 61-year-old man into the vehicle on April 26. Even though the test was done on the same day, the authorities said it was not enough to issue a certificate. They asked us to come again for another test. Since my son was traumatised by what happened on April 26, he developed severe anxiety and became paranoid and whenever anybody entered his home, he held onto the bars of the window,” the petitioner submitted.

On recording the submissions, the judge held that disabled persons who are obviously entitled to rights guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution are entitled to obtain a certificate under Section 58 of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 without any hassle or difficulty.

“The assessment process must be as simple as possible and should not cause any difficulty or trauma or even the least burden to those people,” the judge said and noted that asking the petitioner to produce his son again amounted to arbitrariness. The court further directed that the be issued certificate suffering from permanent disability i.e., mental retardation.