SC notice to Centre, IRDA on plea to extend medical insurance for mental illness

The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued a notice to the Centre and the IRDA on a PIL for a direction to all insurance companies to extend medical insurance for treatment of mental illnessnes.

A bench of Justices R F Nariman, Navin Sinha and B R Gavai sought a response from the Union government and the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) on a PIL filed by advocate Gaurav Kumar Bansal.

The plea contended that none of the insurance complied with Section 21 of the Mental Health Care Act, 2017 and an IRDA order issued in August, 2018, though both specifically made a provision for extending the benefit of insurance to mental illness.

"However, the inaction by the IRDA hampered the rehabilitation process of thousands of persons with mental illness and deprived them of getting insured," he submitted.

Bansal, in his plea, cited Article 25 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which prohibited making any discrimination with such persons in the provisions of the health insurance.

On August 16, 2018, the IRDA issued a circular directing all the insurance companies to comply with the provisions of the Mental Illness Act. However, an RTI reply on February 6, 2019 indicated that till then, no insurance company had complied with the direction, the petitioner claimed. The response also showed that the regulatory authority did not take any action against the insurance firms.

On September 27, 2019, though the IRDA against issued a fresh guidelines but it "deliberately, intentionally and wilfully did not mention about its previous circular of 2018", he alleged.

It appeared that the IRDA was "neither serious, nor was taking any pain in compliance of its own circular," the petitioner further claimed.