Mental Health Rights in India

The Mental Healthcare Act, 2017 was a near-complete rewrite of India's older mental-health law. It centred patient autonomy — advance directives, nominated representatives, the right to live in the community — and effectively decriminalised attempted suicide. Long overdue, but it shifted the legal frame in real ways.

• Right to access mental healthcare: Every person has the right to access mental healthcare from government-run mental health services — including outpatient, inpatient, and community-based services.
• Right to dignity: Persons with mental illness have the right to be treated with dignity — physical restraints, isolation, and aversion therapy are banned unless in exceptional circumstances defined by the Act and authorised by a Mental Health Review Board (MHRB).
• Advance Directive: A person with mental illness (when they have capacity) can make an advance directive specifying how they wish to be treated during a mental health crisis and who their Nominated Representative is.
• Nominated Representative: Every person has the right to appoint a person (family member, friend) as their Nominated Representative who can make decisions on their behalf during incapacity.
• Confidentiality: Mental health records and information about a person's mental health condition are strictly confidential — disclosure without consent is prohibited.
• Suicide attempt decriminalised: The BNS 2023 did not carry forward IPC s. 309 (attempt to commit suicide). Under MHCA s. 115, a person who attempts suicide is presumed to be under severe mental stress and shall not be tried or punished under any law — the state must provide care and rehabilitation instead.
• Right to live in community: Persons with mental illness have the right to live in the community, not to be institutionalised indefinitely without a review board order.