Chandigarh, Aug. 3 -- With Chandigarh Mental Healthcare Rules 2026 in place, persons with mental illness will now be able to decide in advance how they want to be treated and whom they want to appoint as their nominated representative. According to the rules, the government will be liable to establish halfway homes, rehabilitation centres for the mental healthcare services required for persons with mental illness.

Eight years after the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017, came into force, the UT administration issued an e-notification regarding Chandigarh Mental Healthcare (Rights of Persons with Mental Illness) Rules 2026 on July 20 in compliance with the Punjab and Haryana high court's directions.

Though the Mental Healthcare Act 2017 came in...