(1)Where it appears to the State Government that any person detained or imprisoned under any order or sentence of any court is of unsound mind, the State Government may, by a warrant setting forth the grounds of belief that the person is of unsound mind, order his removal to a lunatic asylum or other place of safe custody within the State, thereto be kept and treated as the State Government directs, during the remainder of the term for which he has been ordered or sentenced to be detained or imprisoned or, if on the expiration of that term, it is certified by a medical officer that it is necessary for the safety of the prisoner or others that he should be further detained under medical care or treatment, then until he is discharged according to law.(2)Where it appears to the State Government that the prisoner has become of sound mind, the State Government shall, by a warrant directed to the person having charge of the prisoner, if still liable to be kept in custody, remand him to the prison from which he was removed, or to another prison within the State or, if the prisoner is no longer liable to be kept in custody, order him to be discharged.(3)The time during which a prisoner is confined in a lunatic asylum under sub-section (1) shall be reckoned as part of the term of detention or imprisonment which he may have been ordered or sentenced by the Court to undergo.(4)To every person who is kept in a lunatic asylum under sub-section (1) after the expiration of the term for which he was ordered or sentenced to be detained or imprisoned the provisions of the [Indian Lunacy Act, 1912] [Now see the Provision of Mental Health Act, 1987 (14 of 1987)] (Central Act IV of 1912) shall apply.(5)In any case in which the State Government is competent under sub-section (1) to order the removal of a prisoner to a lunatic asylum or other place of safe custody within the State, the State Government may order his removal of any such asylum or place within any other State by agreement with the Government of that State.
