Not on your signature alone. You can admit a family member to a mental hospital or rehabilitation centre against their will only as a "supported admission" under Section 89 of the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017, and only if every condition in that section is met: his nominated representative applies, a psychiatrist and a second professional examine him independently on the day of admission or within the previous seven days and both find that his illness makes him a danger to himself or others or unable to look after himself, the centre is registered with the State Mental Health Authority, the stay is limited to thirty days, and the Mental Health Review Board is told within seven days. A private centre that offers to pick him up from home and keep him for three months because the family has signed a form is acting outside the Act, and the family that signs is party to whatever follows.
Part of the family and divorce law practice at S Jain & Attorneys, Bangalore.
This page is for a parent or sibling in Bengaluru whose adult son or brother has a serious psychiatric condition or an alcohol or drug dependence, refuses treatment and has become a danger to himself or the household. Divorce on the ground of a spouse's mental illness is covered in our guide on Section 13(1)(iii).
| Route | Who applies | Who certifies | How long | Who reviews |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Independent admission, Section 86 | The person himself, without any relative's consent | The medical officer in charge, satisfied that he has capacity and asks freely | Until he asks to leave, subject to a twenty-four hour hold under Section 88(3) | No report to the Board |
| Supported admission, Section 89 | The nominated representative | One psychiatrist and one other professional, independently, on the day of admission or in the preceding seven days | Up to thirty days | The Board is told within seven days and decides any challenge within seven days |
| Beyond thirty days, Section 90 | The nominated representative | Two psychiatrists, independently, in the preceding seven days, finding a risk that has persisted "consistently over time" | Up to ninety days, then one hundred and twenty, then one hundred and eighty at a time | The Board must permit or order discharge within twenty-one days |
| Emergency treatment, Section 94 | Any registered medical practitioner, with the representative's consent where available | The practitioner's own judgment of immediate necessity | Seventy-two hours or until assessed at an establishment, whichever is earlier | The assessment ends it |
| Magistrate's order, Sections 101 and 102 | The police, on a report of ill-treatment or neglect, or anyone who brings him before the Magistrate | The Magistrate, in writing | Conveyance for assessment, or admission for up to ten days | The establishment reports back |
Can we admit a family member to a mental hospital or rehabilitation centre against their will?
Only through Section 89, and only when every one of its conditions is met on the day. The Act starts from the opposite presumption to the one the centre is selling you. Section 4 deems every person, including a person with mental illness, to have capacity to decide on his treatment if he can understand the relevant information, or appreciate the consequences, or communicate a decision, and Section 4(3) adds that a decision "perceived by others as inappropriate or wrong" does not by itself show a lack of capacity. Refusing treatment is such a decision.
Section 89(1) then sets three cumulative conditions. The person must have been "independently examined on the day of admission or in the preceding seven days, by one psychiatrist and the other being a mental health professional or a medical practitioner", both concluding that his illness is so severe that he has recently threatened or attempted bodily harm to himself, or recently behaved violently or caused another person to fear bodily harm, or recently shown an inability to care for himself that puts him at risk. The examiners must certify that admission is "the least restrictive care option possible in the circumstances". And he must be ineligible for independent admission because he "needs very high support from his nominated representative in making decisions". The application must come from the nominated representative, not from whichever relative is willing to sign.
Measure the offer against that: staff at your door are not a psychiatrist's examination, a family's form is not a representative's application, "he drinks and will not stop" is none of the three risk findings, and Section 89(2) caps any admission at thirty days.
Key takeaway. The family does not admit anyone. The nominated representative applies, two professionals certify the statutory risk, the registered establishment admits for thirty days at most, and the Mental Health Review Board is told. A pickup from home on the family's signature has no place in that sequence.
Three facts carry the whole page.
Supported admission only
An adult can be held against his wishes only under Section 89, on the nominated representative's application, after two independent examinations within seven days of admission find the statutory risk.
Thirty days, then the Board
Section 89 caps the first admission at thirty days. Continuation needs two psychiatrists under Section 90 and the Mental Health Review Board's permission within twenty-one days.
Registered or unlawful
A rehabilitation centre that keeps people with mental illness is a mental health establishment by whatever name it uses, and Section 65 bars it from operating without registration.
Who is the nominated representative, and how do we become one?
The nominated representative is the person the Act trusts to act for a patient who needs support, and the patient chooses him. Under Section 14(1) every adult may appoint one, in writing on plain paper with his signature or thumb impression, and the appointee must be an adult, competent, and consent in writing to the mental health professional (Sections 14(2) and (3)). The patient can revoke or change the appointment at any time (Section 14(6)).
Where nobody has been appointed, Section 14(4) supplies the order: the individual named in an advance directive, failing which "a relative", failing which a care-giver, failing which a suitable person appointed by the Board, and last the Director of the Department of Social Welfare. "Relative" under Section 2(1)(za) means anyone related by blood, marriage or adoption, so a parent or sibling is usually the deemed representative of an adult who has appointed nobody. Two cautions. If he has appointed someone else or revoked your nomination, you are not his representative, and an admission on your application is not a Section 89 admission. And the role is a duty, not a power: Section 17 requires the representative to consider his "current and past wishes, the life history, values, cultural background and the best interests", and to apply to the Board on his behalf for discharge or against any violation of his rights.
An advance directive under Section 5 lets any adult record in advance how he wishes to be treated and whom he wants as his representative, and a relative who wants to depart from it must apply to the Board under Section 11, not ignore it.
Who examines him, and what must they find?
One psychiatrist and one other professional, each examining him independently within the seven-day window and each reaching the same conclusion on the statutory risk. Section 2(1)(y) defines a psychiatrist as a medical practitioner with a recognised post-graduate degree or diploma in psychiatry. The second examiner may be a mental health professional registered with the State Authority under Section 2(1)(r), or a medical practitioner under Section 2(1)(n). A counsellor employed by the centre is not on that list unless registered, and a blood test is not an examination.
What they must find is not mental illness in the abstract but mental illness "of such severity" that one of the three Section 89(1)(a) limbs applies, each anchored in recent conduct. Section 3(4) says past treatment or hospitalisation, "though relevant, shall not by itself justify any present or future determination" of mental illness, so an old discharge summary does not do the work.
The Uttarakhand High Court applied exactly this test on 23 September 2026 in Ankush Chauhan v State of Uttarakhand. A man had spent forty-two days in a private facility in Dehradun after his wife had him admitted during a matrimonial dispute. The facility relied on Section 89 and on one doctor's examination on the day of admission plus a blood test. The Division Bench held that Section 89(1)(a) "requires something more": a psychiatrist and a second professional who independently conclude that the person has a mental illness of the stated severity. No such certification existed, the report that he was addicted to ganja and alcohol "per se cannot be termed as mental illness", and the Court set him free.
How long can he be kept, and who reviews it?
Thirty days under Section 89, and after that only under Section 90 with fresh examinations and the Board's permission. The establishment must report a Section 89 admission to the Board within seven days, or three days for a woman or a minor (Section 89(9)). The patient, his representative or a registered non-governmental organisation with his consent may apply to the Board for review, and the Board's findings, given within seven days, bind everyone (Sections 89(10) and (11)). The medical officer must end the admission the moment the conditions stop applying (Section 89(13)).
Section 90 raises the bar. Two psychiatrists must independently examine him in the preceding seven days and both must find that he has "consistently over time" threatened or attempted self-harm, behaved violently or caused fear, or been unable to care for himself, that admission remains the least restrictive option, and that he still needs very high support. The Board must, within twenty-one days of each admission, permit it or order discharge, asking whether community care would do (Sections 90(4) and (5)). The first Section 90 admission runs up to ninety days, extendable by one hundred and twenty days and then by one hundred and eighty days at a time, each only after the same examinations and permission (Sections 90(8) and (9)). When the Board refuses, the period expires or the criteria cease, he is discharged (Section 90(10)).
Deadline warning. The examinations must fall on the day of admission or within the seven days before it, the Board must be told within seven days of a Section 89 admission and decides a challenge to it within seven days, and a Section 90 continuation stands only if the Board permits it within twenty-one days. An appeal against a Board decision goes to the High Court within thirty days under Section 83.
What is the Mental Health Review Board, and what can it do for us or for him?
The Board is the tribunal the Act puts between the family, the establishment and the patient, and it is the forum the High Court will point you to. Under Section 73 the State Authority constitutes Boards for a district or group of districts, and under Section 74 each is chaired by a District Judge and includes a psychiatrist, a medical practitioner and two members drawn from persons with mental illness, care-givers or organisations in the field.
The patient, his representative or a registered organisation with his consent may apply under Section 77 against a decision of an establishment or a violation of rights, without fee, and in exceptional circumstances orally or by telephone from inside an establishment. Section 72 obliges every establishment to display the Board's address and telephone numbers and to give patients the forms and free telephone access. Section 80 requires the hearing to be held at the establishment, with counsel of choice and a written decision within five days, and Section 82 lets the Board decide applications against admissions, order release of withheld records, inspect an establishment and fine one that wilfully ignores its orders up to five lakh rupees.
Chandrika Upadhyaya v State of Karnataka (Karnataka High Court, 20 August 2026) shows why the Board matters. The petition recorded that a man in his forties had been admitted to a private psychiatric and rehabilitation facility in Bengaluru at his mother's and sister's request and kept for nearly six months, objecting in writing from the second day and asking for his phone, his records, legal aid and the Board, and that he was released only after notice was issued in the habeas corpus petition. The Division Bench declined to decide under Article 226 whether the confinement had been justified, holding that this was for the institution to establish, and sent any objection to the institution's certificate to the Mental Health Review Board.
What happens in an emergency tonight, and what will the police do?
Tonight the Act gives you Section 94 and Section 100, and neither involves a private centre's pickup van. Under Section 94(1) any registered medical practitioner may give emergency treatment, at an establishment or in the community, with the representative's informed consent where one is available, when it is immediately necessary to prevent death or irreversible harm, serious harm to himself or others, or serious damage to property flowing from the illness, and the Explanation says this includes "transportation of the person with mental illness to a nearest mental health establishment for assessment". It lasts seventy-two hours or until he is assessed, whichever is earlier (Section 94(4)), and never covers electroconvulsive therapy. The practical step is therefore an ambulance and a doctor, not the centre's staff.
If there is violence or an immediate risk, call the police. Section 100(1) places a duty on the officer in charge of a police station to take under protection any person he has reason to believe to be a risk to himself or others by reason of mental illness. That person must be taken to the nearest public health establishment for assessment "as soon as possible but not later than twenty-four hours" (Section 100(3)) and "shall not be detained in the police lock up or prison in any circumstances" (Section 100(4)). If no illness requiring admission is found, they take him home, and they will not deliver him to a centre of the family's choice. Where a person with mental illness is being ill-treated or neglected at home, Section 101 requires the police to report it to the Magistrate, and Section 102 lets the Magistrate order his conveyance to a public establishment for assessment or his admission for up to ten days for assessment and treatment planning.
If the crisis is a suicide attempt, Section 115 presumes severe stress and bars trial and punishment for it, and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 carries no general offence of attempting suicide. For a person willing to talk, the government's Tele-MANAS helpline on 14416 or 1800-89-14416 connects to a counsellor, and Karnataka's two cells sit at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences in Bengaluru and at the district institute in Dharwad.
Is a rehabilitation centre a mental health establishment, and must it be registered?
Yes to both. Section 2(1)(p) defines a mental health establishment as any health establishment "by whatever name called, either wholly or partly, meant for the care of persons with mental illness" where such persons "are admitted and reside at, or kept in, for care, treatment, convalescence and rehabilitation, either temporarily or otherwise", whoever owns it, and Section 2(1)(s) expressly includes "mental conditions associated with the abuse of alcohol and drugs" in mental illness. The only carve-out is "a family residential place where a person with mental illness resides with his relatives or friends".
Section 65(1) is categorical: "No person or organisation shall establish or run a mental health establishment unless it has been registered with the Authority under the provisions of this Act." In Karnataka that Authority is the Karnataka State Mental Health Authority, which sits at Arogya Soudha on Magadi Road in Bengaluru, registers every mental health establishment in the State and publishes the register online. Section 70(1) requires the certificate to be displayed "in a conspicuous place".
Before you sign anything, ask to see the certificate, note its number and expiry, and check the register. In the Uttarakhand case the District Magistrate reported that the facility's registration had expired more than a year earlier and that it had "no legal authority to run the facility". Ask who the medical officer in charge is, which psychiatrist will examine your relative and when, and for the written application and certificates that Section 89 requires. A centre that cannot produce these is offering confinement, not treatment.
What happens to the family if the centre is unregistered or the admission is illegal?
The penalties in the Act fall first on the operator, but the family that arranged an unlawful confinement is exposed under the ordinary criminal law and will see the admission examined in a habeas corpus petition. Section 107(1) penalises running an establishment without registration: five thousand to fifty thousand rupees for a first contravention, fifty thousand to two lakh rupees for a second and two lakh to five lakh rupees thereafter. Section 108 reaches "any person" who contravenes the Act, with imprisonment up to six months or a fine up to ten thousand rupees or both for a first contravention, and up to two years with a fine of fifty thousand to five lakh rupees thereafter.
Outside the Act, keeping an adult inside a building against his will is wrongful confinement under Section 127 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, punishable with imprisonment up to one year or a fine or both, and more heavily where it lasts three days or more. The relative who signs the form and arranges the pickup set that confinement in motion. The person confined, or anyone on his behalf, can move the High Court for habeas corpus under Article 226, as in the Karnataka case. Our guide on habeas corpus explains when the writ lies against confinement by private individuals.
What about alcohol or drug dependence: is that a mental illness?
It can be, but dependence alone does not satisfy Section 89. Section 2(1)(s) brings "mental conditions associated with the abuse of alcohol and drugs" within mental illness, so a person with a substance-related disorder is inside the Act and may be admitted under Section 89 if, and only if, two independent examiners find the statutory severity and risk. The Uttarakhand Division Bench said that a report that a man was addicted to ganja and alcohol "per se cannot be termed as mental illness" without a conclusion by the examiners Section 89 names.
If there is a pending drug charge, the choice of centre matters for a second reason. Section 64A of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 gives an addict charged under Section 27 or with a small-quantity offence immunity from prosecution if he "voluntarily seeks to undergo medical treatment for de-addiction from a hospital or an institution maintained or recognised by the Government or a local authority and undergoes such treatment", withdrawable if he does not complete it. A private centre that is not government-recognised earns no immunity, and treatment he did not seek voluntarily is not what the section describes.
What are his rights inside: restraints, ECT, phone, visitors, records?
Chapter V gives him rights that follow him through the gate, and the family is usually the first to hear that they are being broken.
Restraint and seclusion. Section 97(1) prohibits seclusion or solitary confinement outright and allows physical restraint only as the sole means of preventing imminent harm, authorised by the psychiatrist in charge. It must be recorded at once, may never be used as punishment or for want of staff, and must be notified to the representative within twenty-four hours and reported to the Board monthly (Sections 97(2) to (7)). Section 95(1)(d) prohibits chaining "in any manner or form whatsoever".
Treatment. Section 95(1) bans electroconvulsive therapy without muscle relaxants and anaesthesia, ECT for minors, and sterilisation as a treatment for mental illness. Under Sections 89(6) to (8) treatment during a supported admission rests on his own informed consent with the representative's support, and only where he needs nearly hundred per cent support may the representative consent temporarily, with his capacity reviewed every seven days. The wider law of consent is in our guide on informed consent.
Contact and information. Section 26(1) gives him the right to receive or refuse visitors and to make and receive phone calls "at reasonable times subject to the norms of such mental health establishment", and Section 26(4) says calls and visits from his representative, his lawyer, a Judge or a Board member cannot be restricted "under any circumstances". Section 22 entitles him and the representative to be told the provision under which he is admitted, the criteria, his right to apply to the Board, and the treatment plan. Section 25 gives him access to his medical records, and our guide on medical records covers how to demand them. Section 27 entitles him to free legal services, Section 20 to a safe environment, privacy, his own clothes and protection from physical, verbal, emotional and sexual abuse, and Section 28 to a complaints ladder: the medical officer, then the Board, then the State Authority. Section 19(1)(b) says he cannot be kept in an establishment merely because his family will not have him back.
Can a court order treatment or appoint a guardian for him?
A Magistrate can order an assessment, the Board decides an admission, a court can appoint a limited guardian, and no civil court can be asked for an injunction to detain him. Section 116 bars civil courts from any matter the Authority or the Board has power to decide and bars injunctions against action under the Act, so a suit asking a civil court to commit a relative is not available. Section 3(5) says a determination of mental illness does not make a person "of unsound mind unless he has been declared as such by a competent court".
Guardianship is a different instrument for a different purpose. Mental illness is a specified disability under the Schedule to the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, and Section 14 of that Act lets a district court, or a designated authority notified by the State Government, give a person with disability who "is unable to take legally binding decisions" a limited guardian "to take legally binding decisions on his behalf in consultation with such person". The Explanation calls it "a system of joint decision which operates on mutual understanding and trust", limited to a specific period, decision and situation. It is not a licence to lock someone up.
What if we cannot afford a private centre?
Use the public system the Act obliges the State to run. Section 18(1) gives every person the right to mental healthcare from services run or funded by the government, Section 18(5)(e) requires such services in every district, and Section 18(5)(c) confines long-term institutional care to exceptional circumstances "and only as a last resort when appropriate community based treatment has been tried and shown to have failed". Section 18(7) makes treatment free at government establishments for persons below the poverty line, destitute or homeless. In practice that means the district mental health programme, run under the National Mental Health Programme through district hospitals and health centres, and in Bengaluru the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences, the public institute that also hosts the State's Tele-MANAS cell.
Step by step for a family this week
- Write down what has happened in the last fortnight, with dates: any threat or attempt at self-harm, any violence or threat to others, any failure to eat, wash or take medicine that puts him at risk. These are the Section 89(1)(a) facts.
- Establish who his nominated representative is. If he has appointed nobody and made no advance directive, the parent or sibling who will act is the deemed representative under Section 14(4)(b) and should be ready to consent in writing under Section 14(3).
- Get a psychiatrist to see him, at a clinic, at home or at a public hospital, and ask for the examination and any Section 89(1)(a) finding to be recorded with the date.
- Choose a registered establishment. See the Section 70 certificate, note its number and expiry, and confirm which psychiatrist will do the second examination within the seven-day window.
- Make the application as nominated representative and keep copies of it, of both examination certificates and of the admission entry showing the section under which he is admitted.
- Diarise day seven, when the establishment must have reported to the Board, and day thirty, when the Section 89 admission ends unless two psychiatrists have examined him and a Section 90 application has gone to the Board.
- Visit, call and keep his records. Section 97(5) means you must be told of any restraint within twenty-four hours, and Sections 28 and 77 take a complaint to the Board at no fee.
- If he objects to the admission, do not obstruct his application to the Board under Section 89(10). The Board decides within seven days and its finding binds everyone, including the family.
Mistakes families make
What I tell families at the first meeting is that the Act was written to stop the very thing they are being offered. In both 2026 habeas corpus cases the admitted man himself was before the Court, one after forty-two days and one after nearly six months, and in each the admission the family had arranged was examined by a Division Bench. Where these cases actually turn is not on whether the relative was ill but on whether the paper exists: two dated examinations within the window, a representative with authority, a registration certificate, a report to the Board. A family that insists on that paper before signing is protecting itself as much as him.
Common mistake. Signing a private centre's "consent for admission" on an adult relative's behalf. An adult's admission rests on his own consent under Section 86 or on the nominated representative's application with two certificates under Section 89. A relative's signature is neither, and a form does not make the person who signs it the nominated representative.
Four more recur, and each has a section behind it.
Allowing a forced pickup
Emergency transport under Section 94 is by a registered medical practitioner with the representative's consent. Centre staff removing an adult from his home have no authority under the Act.
Ignoring his own choices
An adult who has appointed someone else, revoked a nomination or made an advance directive has fixed who acts for him, and an application by anyone else is not a Section 89 application.
Not keeping the records
The examination certificates, the application, the admission entry and the Board's report are what a court or Board will ask for. Sections 22 and 25 entitle him and his representative to them.
Thirty days, not three months
Section 89 ends at thirty days or earlier. Continuation needs two psychiatrists and the Board's permission within twenty-one days under Section 90, and the Board can order discharge.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can a private rehabilitation centre pick up my relative from home if the family signs?
No. The Act contains no power for a centre's staff to remove an adult from his home. Emergency transport for assessment is by a registered medical practitioner under Section 94, for at most seventy-two hours, and admission against his wishes needs the nominated representative's application and two independent examinations under Section 89.
Who counts as the nominated representative if he never appointed one?
Section 14(4) supplies the order: the person named in an advance directive, then a relative, then a care-giver, then a person appointed by the Board, then the Director of Social Welfare. A parent or sibling is a relative and is usually the deemed representative.
He refuses all treatment but is not violent. Can he be admitted?
Not under Section 89. Refusal is a decision the Act protects under Section 4(3), and supported admission needs a recent threat or attempt of self-harm, recent violence or fear of it, or a recent inability to care for himself that puts him at risk, certified by two independent examiners.
How long can a supported admission last?
Thirty days under Section 89. Beyond that, Section 90 needs two psychiatrists and the Board's permission within twenty-one days, for up to ninety days, then one hundred and twenty, then one hundred and eighty days at a time, and the admission ends whenever the criteria stop being met.
Will the police take him to the centre we have chosen?
No. Under Section 100 the police may take a person at risk into protection and must take him to the nearest public health establishment within twenty-four hours, never to a lock-up and not to a private centre of the family's choosing.
Is alcoholism or drug addiction a mental illness under the Act?
Mental conditions associated with alcohol and drug abuse are within the Section 2(1)(s) definition, but the Uttarakhand High Court held in September 2026 that an addiction record on its own is not a mental illness of the severity Section 89 requires, and only the certified examinations can supply that.
What if the centre is not registered?
Section 65 forbids it from operating, Section 107 penalises the operator with graded monetary penalties, Section 108 punishes contraventions with imprisonment, and a person held there can seek habeas corpus. Check the Karnataka State Mental Health Authority's register and the Section 70 certificate before you deal with any centre.
Can he challenge the admission himself?
Yes. Section 89(10) lets him, his representative or a registered organisation with his consent apply to the Mental Health Review Board, which decides within seven days, at no fee, at the establishment, and its finding binds everyone.
Can we get a court to appoint us his guardian and admit him?
A limited guardian under Section 14 of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 takes legally binding decisions jointly with him for a specific period and purpose. It is not a power to confine, and Section 116 of the Mental Healthcare Act bars civil courts from matters the Board decides.
This article is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Consult a qualified advocate for advice on your specific situation.
