On Friday, the Maharashtra High Court pulled up the state government and its mental health authority for "doing nothing" to implement provisions of the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017. The state HC passed a series of directives to investigate the mental healthcare institutions that allegedly do not regularly assess the condition of patients to determine if they can be discharged.

This decision to investigate mental institutes was taken by a division bench of Justice Nitin M. Jamdar and Justice Gauri V. Godse. The bench was hearing a PIL by psychiatrist Dr. Harish Shetty, seeking implementation of the Mental Healthcare Act of 2017.

During the hearing, the bench noted that, as per Section 55 of the 2017 law, the state authority is to conduct functions such as registration and supervision of mental health establishments in the state, developing norms for them, and receiving complaints about deficiencies in the provision of their services, among others.

The bench directed the authorities′ CEO to file an affidavit detailing when the fund was established and whether it was adequate for the discharge of functions. The affidavit should also include information about the activities of the authority for the ongoing year, budget, and programs for the coming year.