Mental Treatment Act, 1953

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Exercise or performance of certain powers and duties.

3.—(1) A power or duty under the Principal Act of the resident medical superintendent, the chief medical officer or the person in charge of a district mental hospital may be exercised or performed by any other medical officer of the institution authorised in that behalf by the mental hospital authority maintaining the institution.

(2) A power or duty under the Principal Act of the chief medical officer of a mental institution other than a district mental hospital may be exercised or performed by any other medical officer of the institution authorised in that behalf by the person in charge of the institution.

(3) A power or duty under the Principal Act of the person in charge of a mental institution other than a district mental hospital may be exercised or performed by any officer of the institution authorised in that behalf by the person in charge.

(4) Where—

(a) an order (in this subsection referred to as the primary order) to have a person (in this subsection referred to as the patient) received and detained as a temporary patient and as a chargeable patient or private patient in an approved institution was signed before the passing of this Act,

(b) the person who signed the primary order was then an officer of the institution but was not then the person in charge of the institution,

(c) in pursuance of the primary order and before the passing of this Act, the patient was received and detained as a temporary patient and as a chargeable patient or private patient in the institution, and

(d) at the passing of this Act, the patient remains detained (whether in pursuance of the primary order alone or in pursuance of the primary order and an order or orders made by the Minister in relation to the primary order for the purpose of extending the period of detention) as a temporary patient and as a chargeable patient or private patient in the institution,

the following provisions shall have effect:—

(I) the primary order shall be deemed to have been made by the person in charge of the institution and to have been signed by him, and the application for the primary order shall be deemed to have been made to such person in charge, and

(II) in case an order or orders was made as aforesaid by the Minister—

(i) the order or orders shall be deemed to have been made in relation to the primary order as deemed to have been made, signed and applied for as aforesaid,

(ii) if, as respects the order or any of the orders, the request therefor was made by an officer of the institution who was not the person in charge of the institution, it shall be deemed to have been made by such person in charge, and

(iii) if, as respects the order or any of the orders, the person who became of opinion that the patient would not have recovered on the expiration of the period of detention was a medical officer of the institution who was not the chief medical officer of the institution, he shall be deemed to have been such chief medical officer.

(5) Where at the passing of this Act a person is detained in an approved institution in pursuance of an order (in this subsection referred to as the primary order) which is a temporary chargeable patient reception order or a temporary private patient reception order and an order or orders made by the Minister in relation to the primary order for the purpose of extending the period of detention—

(a) if, as respects the order or any of the orders, the request therefor was made by an officer of the institution who was not the person in charge of the institution, it shall be deemed to have been made by such person in charge, and

(b) if, as respects the order or any of the orders, the person who became of opinion that the patient would not have recovered on the expiration of the period of detention was a medical officer of the institution who was not the chief medical officer of the institution, he shall be deemed to have been such chief medical officer.