India, May 25 -- The Delhi high court has ordered a mentally ill person to face trial in a 2016 rape case, setting aside a city court's decision to exonerate him, as it held that while the law shields such people from unwarranted criminal liability, it does not permit their "blind discharge" into society without proper assessment of the nature of their acts.

The ruling came on Delhi Police's appeal challenging a district court's April 2017 order to exonerate a rape-accused after a medical board "found him to have the mind of a four-year old child."

He was let off on the ground that "he could neither understand the nature of act nor could defend himself."

Reversing the decision, a bench of justice Swarana Kanta Sharma on Wednesday reman...