CHAPTER 279
MENTAL TREATMENT ACT.
Commencement: 31 August, 1938.
An Act to make provision for the care of persons of unsound mind and for the management of mental hospitals in Uganda.
In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires—
(a) "chief" means any duly appointed chief employed by the administration of a district;
(b) "magistrate" means a chief magistrate, a magistrate grade I or a magistrate grade II;
(c) "medical practitioner" means a person duly registered as a medical practitioner under the Medical and Dental Practitioners Act or any enactment amending or replacing that Act;
(d) "medical superintendent" means any duly registered or licensed medical practitioner deputed by the chief medical officer to be a medical officer in charge of a mental hospital;
(e) "mental hospital" means any building or part of a building appointed by the Minister by statutory instrument for the detention, treatment and care of persons of unsound mind;
(f) "person of unsound mind" means an idiot or a person who is suffering from mental derangement.
ADJUDICATION OF PERSONS OF UNSOUND MIND.
2. Inquiry as to a person's state of mind.
(1) Any magistrate, upon the information on oath in the prescribed form of any informant to the effect that the informant has good cause to suspect and believe and does suspect and believe some person to be of unsound mind and a proper subject to be placed under care and treatment, may, in any place which he or she deems convenient, see and question the person suspected of being of unsound mind, and, in the same place or elsewhere, may hold an inquiry in private as to the state of mind of that person.
(2) For the purposes of an inquiry under subsection (1), a magistrate shall have the powers of a magistrate's court as if the suspected person were a person against whom a complaint for an offence punishable by a magistrate's court had been laid; except that the magistrate may, after seeing the person suspected of being of unsound mind, proceed with the inquiry in the absence of that person and without proof of the service of any summons upon him or her.
(3) If it has been made to appear to a magistrate by information on oath that any person suspected of being of unsound mind is at large or is dangerous to himself or herself or others, or is not under proper care and control or is cruelly treated or neglected by any relative or other person having the care or charge of him or her, the magistrate may by order under his or her hand require any police officer to apprehend the person suspected of being of unsound mind and bring the person before that magistrate or some other magistrate for the purposes of the inquiry as provided by this Act.
(4) A magistrate may adjourn the inquiry for a period not exceeding 14 days for the purpose of medical examination or the production of evidence regarding the state of mind of the person to whom the inquiry relates, and for that purpose, if the person alleged to be of unsound mind has been apprehended under subsection (3) or under section 6 or if it appears to the magistrate that the temporary detention of that person is desirable for the purpose of a satisfactory medical examination of the person or for the welfare or safety of himself or herself or others, the magistrate may make such order for the detention and safe custody of the person during the adjournment as the magistrate shall deem fit.
(5) An order for temporary detention under subsection (4) may authorise the detention of the person to whom it relates in any place, including a mental hospital, which the magistrate deems suitable for the purpose, except that no order shall be made for the detention of the person in any place outside the local limits of the jurisdiction of the magistrate unless the magistrate is satisfied that a satisfactory medical examination cannot otherwise be carried out.
(6) In a case referred to under subsection (5), the inquiry may be continued and completed before a magistrate having jurisdiction in the place where the person is so detained, and for that purpose a copy of the prescribed form of information on which the inquiry was opened shall be transmitted to that magistrate.
(7) If upon the conclusion of the inquiry under subsection (4), the person is found not to be of unsound mind, the person shall, if he or she so wishes, be conveyed back at the public expense to the area in which the inquiry was commenced.
(8) Where any person, having the care and custody of a person apparently of unsound mind, is for any reason no longer able properly to control that person or to prevent that person from doing injury to himself herself or others, the first mentioned person shall make due application to a magistrate under this section or report the circumstances of the case to a police officer or a chief in order that proceedings under this Act may be taken in regard to the person.
3. Medical certificates.
(1) A magistrate making an inquiry under section 2 shall also appoint two medical practitioners, one at least of whom shall be a duly registered medical practitioner, whom he or she shall direct and authorise separately to examine the person suspected of being of unsound mind, and thereupon each practitioner, if he or she considers the facts warrant him or her in so doing, shall sign a certificate certifying that in his or her opinion the suspected person is of unsound mind.
(2) Such certificate shall be in the prescribed form and shall specify in full detail the facts upon which the medical practitioner signing it founds his or her opinion, and shall distinguish facts which he or she has observed from facts communicated by others.
(3) The medical practitioner signing the certificate may inquire of any persons able to give information as to the previous history of the person suspected of being of unsound mind, but no certificate shall have any effect under this Act which purports to be founded wholly on facts communicated by others.
(4) The medical practitioners appointed by a magistrate under this section shall not be in partnership one with the other or related one to the other or related to the person alleged to be of unsound mind.
4. Adjudication of insanity and admission to a mental hospital.
(1) Where upon such inquiry it appears to a magistrate that any person
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