Under section 115(2) of the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017, the duty to provide care, treatment and…

Section 115(2) of the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017 provides that "the appropriate Government shall have a duty to provide care, treatment and rehabilitation to a person, having severe stress and who attempted to commit suicide, to reduce the risk of recurrence of attempt to commit suicide". Section 115(1) presumes, unless proved otherwise, that a person who attempts suicide has severe stress.

The police, the Mental Health Review Board and the person's relatives do not carry this statutory duty. Under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 there is no general offence of attempt to commit suicide (formerly s.309 IPC); section 226 punishes it only when made to compel or restrain a public servant from discharging official duty.