SC notice on asylum deaths

By Our Legal Correspondent

NEW DELHI, AUG. 7. A five-judge Bench of the Supreme Court today in the tragic matter of ``death of over 25 chained inmates in asylum fire in Tamil Nadu'' issued notice to the State of Tamil Nadu and other authorities concerned (respondents) to submit a ``factual report'' with regard to the incident.

The Bench comprising the Chief Justice, Dr. A.S. Anand, Mr. Justice K.T. Thomas, Mr. Justice R.C. Lahoti, Mr. Justice N. Santosh Hegde and Mr. Justice S.N. Variava made today's order while treating as a writ petition a ``submission note'' from the Court's Registrar (Judicial) on the ``gruesome tragedy'' published in all leading national dailies.

The said news item - in which more than 25 mentally- challenged patients housed in an asylum at Ervadi in Ramanathapuram district were charred to death - ``raises important questions concerning human rights of inmates of mental asylum, who according to the newspaper reports could not escape the blaze as they had been chained to poles or beds'', the Bench observed.

The Court's notice, issued also to the Union of India, is made returnable in 10 days.

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