HC seeks reply from Centre on vax priority to mentally ill patients

New Delhi: Delhi High Court on Monday sought a response from the Centre on a plea seeking to get priority Covid-19 vaccination for people suffering from mental illness.

A bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Jasmeet Singh issued notice to the Centre, Central Mental Health Authority (CMHA) and National Expert Group of Vaccine Administration for COVID-19 (NEGVAC) and sought their responses, while listing the matter for further hearing on April 30.

It acted on a PIL, which also sought to direct the authorities to frame policy to provide Covid-19 vaccination to homeless mentally-ill people and challenged the exclusion of mental illness from the list of specified comorbidities for determination of eligibility of citizens in the age group of 45 to 59 years.

Petitioner advocate Gaurav Kumar Bansal submitted, “By way of excluding mental illness from the list of specified comorbidities and further by way of providing benefit of the vaccination to those with disabilities having high support needs, respondents (authorities) have not only prohibited homeless mentally-ill people from availing the benefits of the vaccination, but have also created barriers for thousands of those having severe mental illness and having no disability certificate to get the vaccination,” the plea said.

The petition said homeless people with severe mental illness have a higher risk of contracting Covid-19 infection due to the fact that they are unable to understand what is happening with them.

“It is because of the said reason that the Indian Psychiatric Society has written two times to the respondents for inclusion of mental illness in the list of specified comorbidities, but to no avail,” it submitted.