AbstractBackground: There is no health without mental health. As of late led National Mental Health Survey cited a commonness of 13.7% lifetime and 10.6% current mental illness. To address this mammoth issue, an optimistic law was sanctioned titled "Mental Healthcare Act, 2017" (MHCA 2017). The demonstration is dynamic and rights situated in nature. The entire committed Chapter 5 on “Rights of Persons with Mental illness” is the substance of this enactment. Be that as it may, the demonstration predominantly centers on the privileges of the people with Mental illness (PMI), just during treatment in medical clinic however isn't similarly earnest about congruity of treatment in the network. In spite of the fact that there are numerous positive angles to the MHCA 2017, it might affect antagonistically on the psychological wellness care in India. India has a huge weight of psychological instability Methods: In view of the nature of the problem selected and objective to be accomplished evaluative approach was adopted for the study with Pre experimental research design [one group Pre –test, Post -test] to assess the knowledge of student nurses regarding MHCA 2017 and Rights of Mentally challenged persons. A Simple random sampling technique was used to select the samples. Results: Findings revealed that that the majority of the respondents (95%) had scores below 18 and only 5% had scores between 19- 23 and none of them had scores above 23 in the pre-test. In the post-test, none of them had scores below 18. On comparing the pre-test scores with the post-test scores it was found that all the nursing students scored higher in post-test than the pre-test. Conclusion: The present study results revealed that though students possess some knowledge regarding MHCA 2017 and Rights of Mentally challenged persons but majority of them have inadequate knowledge. In general, it was Poor to average.
Keyword: Mental health care act 2017, mental Health establishments, Authority bodies.