Mental Treatment Act, 1945

Authorised medical officer.

5.—(1) In this Act, the expression “the authorised medical officer”, when used with respect to a person to whom an application under this Act relates, means—

(a) if the person ordinarily resides in a dispensary district for which there is one medical officer only, either—

(i) if that medical officer is not disqualified in relation to the person—that medical officer, or

(ii) if that medical officer is disqualified in relation to the person—the nearest available of the medical officers of dispensary districts who are not disqualified in relation to the person,

(b) if the person ordinarily resides in a dispensary district for which there are more medical officers than one, either—

(i) the nearest available of such of those medical officers as are not disqualified in relation to the person, or

(ii) in case none of those medical officers is available or all of them are disqualified in relation to the person, or some are not available and the remainder are disqualified in relation to the person—the nearest available of the medical officers of dispensary districts who are not disqualified in relation to the person.

(2) A medical officer for a dispensary district shall, for the purposes of sub-section (1) of this section, be disqualified in relation to a person—

(a) if such officer is interested in the payments (if any) to be made on account of the taking care of the person, or

(b) if such officer is the husband or wife, father, step-father or father-in-law, mother, step-mother or mother-in-law, son, step-son or son-in-law, daughter, stepdaughter or daughter-in-law, brother, step-brother or brother-in-law, sister, step-sister or sister-in-law, or guardian or trustee of the person.