SC to hear plea in connection with leprosy treatment

The Supreme Court will on Friday hear the plea filed in connection with the Leprosy treatment.

A writ petition (Pankaj Sinha vs Union of India), highlighting the need to curb unfair practices against children affected by leprosy in educational institutions, was filed before the apex court in 2014.

A bench of Justices Dipak Misra and Vikramjit Sen asked the Centre and states to respond in two weeks to a PIL filed by Pankaj Sinha, who suggested that the governments set up colonies for leprosy patients, cure them and take steps to assimilate them back in society without they facing any stigma.

Appearing for the petitioner, senior advocate Colin Gonsalves said multidrug therapy (MDT) available since 1981 could cure a person of 99 percent of leprosy bacteria yet three decades later, "due to apathy of Union government and the states, people are still suffering the disease, which is treated as a social stigma.