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Heavy fines and jail terms for those who violate Rehab Act
View(s):By Ranjith Padmasiri
The government’s proposed Rehabilitation Bureau Bill seeks to impose imprisonment and heavy fines for those who attempt to introduce drugs to rehabilitation centres.
According to the proposed bill, any person who, without authority, supplies or attempts to supply any dangerous drug, narcotic drug or psychotropic substance or any unauthorised article to a rehabilitation centre shall be liable on conviction after summary trial by a magistrate to a fine not exceeding Rs. 500,000 or to imprisonment for up to two years or to both a fine and imprisonment.
The bill also proposes to punish rehabilitation centre employees who mistreat inmates.
Any person employed in such a centre who “without reasonable cause” strikes, wounds, ill-treats or willfully neglects any person under rehabilitation shall be liable on conviction after summary trial by a magistrate to a fine not exceeding Rs. 200,000 or imprisonment up to 18 months or to both a fine and imprisonment.
It shall also be the duty of any person employed in a rehabilitation centre to preserve order and discipline among the persons undergoing rehabilitation and for this purpose it shall be lawful for such person to use “all such means including minimum force, as may reasonably be necessary to compel obedience to any lawful directions given by him,” the bill notes. The objective of the Bureau of Rehabilitation that will be established under the Act shall be to “rehabilitate drug dependent persons, ex-combatants, members of violent extremist groups and any other group of persons who require treatment and rehabilitation by adopting various therapies to ensure effective reintegration and reconciliation, through developing socio-economic standards.”
All records pertaining to a person in the custody of a rehabilitation centre shall be confidential and cannot be released except on a court order or in connection with an investigation in respect of the commission of a serious offence within a centre for rehabilitation.
Any person who contravenes these provisions commits an offence under this Act, and shall be liable on conviction after summary trial by a magistrate to a fine up to Rs. 100,000 or to imprisonment up to one year or to both such fine and imprisonment.
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