New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday sought response from the Centre and the Insurance Regulatory Development Authority (IRDA) on a plea alleging violation of provisions of Mental health law, which deals with right to equality and non-discrimination.
A bench of Justices R F Nariman, Navin Sinha and B R Gavai issued notice on the plea and sought their responses.
During the hearing, advocate Gaurav Kumar Bansal, appearing as petitioner in-person, said that Section 21 (4) of Mental Health Act 2017 provides for inclusion of mental illness in insurance policies but till date because of the red tape attitude of IRDA, the provision has not been complied with.
He said the failure of IRDA in not regulating insurance companies to implement section 21 (4) of Mental Health Act 2017, is creating lot of hardship to mentally ill persons.
Bansal said the grievance is that despite having specific provisions under the law, IRDA is reluctant in taking immediate action.
The bias of IRDA is in itself discrimination against persons with mental illness and as such is causing immense hardship for persons with mental illness. Instead of levying punishment on Insurers for not including the provision of the Mental Health Care Act, 2017, IRDA is bypassing its responsibilities, he said.
Bansal pointed out that IRDA was formed with the prime mission to protect the interests of the policy- holders but its acts seem to divert from its main motive.
That one of the Right which Mental Healthcare Act2017 provides is that insurer is directed to not to discriminate with Person with Mental Illness (PMI) only on the basis of mental illness and as such is further mandated by the Parliament of India to treat Persons with Mental illness alike others as far as medical insurance is concerned, the plea said.