The Delhi High Court made a suggestion to the Central Government to look for a mechanism for COVID-19 testing and issue guidelines accordingly for mentally ill homeless people.
This will also include those without any identity or address proof.
Even if people do not have any identity proof, some mechanism should be implemented to provide them the basic facility of testing, according to a division bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Prateek Jalan.
The High Court has granted time to resolve this issue on August 7, 2020.
This came to light after the Delhi High Court heard a Public Interest Litigation seeking guidelines with respect to COVID-19 testing for mentally ill homeless people.
In an affidavit, the Delhi government stated that the main problem faced by mentally ill homeless people is the lack of identity and address proof.
The identity and address proof is mandatory under the guidelines of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).
The affidavit included that homeless mentally ill people deserve all healthcare services, even testing for COVID-19.
It also stated that according to Section 3 (3) of the Mental Healthcare Act-2017, the government is responsible to take all necessary measures for providing services required by people with mental illnesses.
The plea said that the COVID-19 pandemic has put extra pressure on the government to not only provide for mental health but testing as well.
Source: ANI