Medical Examination and detention of leprosy patients and lunatics

(1) Where it appears to the State Government that any beggar detained in a Certified Institution under any order of a court is of unsound mind or is a leper, the State Government may by any order setting forth the grounds of belief that the beggar is of unsound mind or a leper order his removal to a mental hospital or leper asylum or other place of safe custody, there to be kept and treated as State Government directs during the remainder of the term for which he has been ordered to be detained or, if on the expiration of that term it is certified by a medical officer that it is necessary for the safety of the beggar or of others that he should be further detained under medical care or treatment, he should be detained until he is discharged according to law. (2) Where it appears to the State Government that the beggar has ceased to be of unsound mind, or is cured of leprosy, the State Government shall, if he is no longer liable to be kept in custody, order him to be discharged. In case the beggar is still liable to be kept in custody the State Government shall, by an order directed to the person having charge of the beggar, send him to the Certified Institution from which he was removed. (3) The provisions of section 31 of the Indian Lunacy Act, 1912, and the provisions of section 14 of the Lepers Act, 1898, shall apply to every beggar confined in a mental hospital or leper asylum under sub-section (1) after the expiration of the period for which he was ordered to be detained; and the time during which a beggar is confined in a mental hospital or leper asylum under that sub-section shall be reckoned as part of the period for which he may have been ordered by the Court to be detained: Provided that where the removal of a beggar due to unsoundness of mind or leprosy is immediately necessary, it shall be open to the authorities of the institution in which the beggar is detained to apply to a court having jurisdiction under the Indian Lunacy Act, 1912, or the Lepers Act, 1898, as the case may be, for an immediate order of his committal to a mental hospital or a leper asylum.