Medical Insurance For Mental Illness: Supreme Court Sends Notice To Centre, IRDA

New Delhi: In wake of the renewed debate over depression triggered by the suicide of Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput, the Supreme Court on Tuesday took up a PIL seeking directive to insurance companies for providing medical insurance for treatment of mental illness.

The petition, filed by advocate Gaurav Kumar Bansal, stated that insurance companies are refusing to provide such coverage despite a mandate under the Mental Healthcare Act of 2017.

Following this, a bench of Justices Rohinton Fali Nariman, Navin Sinha and BR Gavai issued a notice to the Centre and Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) on the matter, Hindustan Times reported.

Section 21 (4) of the Mental Healthcare Act states that “every insurer shall make provision for medical insurance for treatment of mental illness on the same basis as is available for treatment of physical illness”.

Based on that provision, the IRDA had issued a circular in August 2018 to the insurance companies to comply with the same but to no avail.

The IRDA, however, has not taken any action against insurance companies for such violation, the petitioner contended.

“The inaction by IRDA is hampering the rehabilitation process of thousands of persons with mental Illness,” the petition said.

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