- (1.) A news item was published on 14-10-2005 in The Indian Express, New Delhi stating that one Machal Lalung, a resident of Assam continued to languish as an undertrial prisoner in a psychiatric hospital for a period of thirty-eight years even after he was declared fit by the hospital in 1967.
(2.) This news item was brought to the notice of this Court and a series of orders were passed. The said Machal Lalung was directed to be released from the psychiatric hospital. The High Courts' Registries were required to collect and furnish the particulars of undertrial prisoners lodged in mental asylums.
(3.) The reports received from the High Courts show that there are several other cases where mentally ill persons who have allegedly committed various offences are kept as undertrial prisoners in various psychiatric hospitals/nursing homes in various States.;