A.K. Basheer, J.

Appellant is the wife of one Sankaranarayanan. She filed a petition before the District Court, Palakkad under Section 50, 52 and 54 of the Mental Health Act 1987 (fior short, the Act) with a prayer to appoint her as the Manager of her mentally ill husband for the specific purpose of receiving the family pension due from the Ministry of Steel, Govt. of India.

2. The parents of Sankaranarayanan who were arrayed as respondents in the Original Petition, did not respond to the notice issued from the court below. The District Court after considering the oral testimony of the appellant who was examined as Pw.1 and also Exts.A-1 to A-3 documents produced by her, took the view that Sankaranarayanan is not a mentally ill person and therefore rejected the prayer for her appointment as manager and dismissed the petition.

3. Learned counsel submits that the appellant had approached the court below under the Act only to enable her family comprising herself, her husband Sankaranarayanan and the two minor children to get family pension from the Central Government as provided under Rule 54 of the Central (Civil Services) Pension Rules. It is contended by the learned counsel that the father of Sankaranarayanan who was impleaded as respondent No. 1 before the court below was an employee under the Central Government. He had been drawing a family pension of about Rs. 8000/- per month. Going by the provisions contained in Rule 54 referred to above, Sankaranarayanan will also be entitled to get family pension since he is suffering from disorder or disability of mind.

4. The preamble of Act 1987 says that the Act is intended "to consolidate and amend the law relating to the treatment and care of mentally ill persons, to make better provision with respect to their property and affairs and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto".

(emphasis supplied by us)

Section 2 (l) defines mentally ill person thus :

""Mentally ill person" means a person who is in need of treatment by reason of any mental disorder other than mental retardation;"

(emphasis supplied)

A perusal of the above definition will unambiguously show that mental retardation is taken out of the fold or ambit of mental illness. Chapter 6 of the Act deals with "judicial inquisition regarding alleged mentally ill person possessing property, custody of his person and management of his property."

5. As has been noticed already, appellant approached the court below with a petition under Section 50, 52 and 54 of the Act. These sections are extracted hereunder for easy reference :

"50. Application for judicial inquisition :- (1) Where an alleged mentally ill person is possessed of property, an application for holding an inquisition into the mental condition of such person may be made either -

(a) by any of his relatives, or

(b) by a public curator appointed under the Indian Succession Act, 1925 (39 of 1925), or

(c) by the Advocate General of the State in which the alleged mentally ill person resides, or

(d) where the property of the alleged mentally ill person comprises land or interest in land, or where the property or part thereof is of such a nature as can lawfully be entrusted for management to a Court of Wards established under any law for the time being in force in the State, by the Collector of the District in which such land is situate, to the District Court within the local limits of whose jurisdiction the alleged mentally ill person resides,

(2) On receipt of an application under sub-section (1), the District Court shall, by personal service or by such other mode of service as it may deem fit, serve a notice on the alleged mentally ill person to attend at such place and at such time as may be specified in the notice or shall in like manner, serve a notice on the person having the custody of the alleged mentally ill person to produce such person at the said place and at the same time, or being examined by the District Court or by any other person from whom the Distric