The Mental Health Cae Act 2017 aims to protect the rights of persons with mental illnesses and to promote and provide mental healthcare services to those in need. This legislation has complied with the resolutions adopted in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) 2006. This Convention adopted a broad categorization of persons with disabilities and ensured that all persons with all types of disabilities must enjoy all human rights and fundamental freedoms. In this context this Act is extremely important for our country which has more than seventy million people suffering from mental disorders. This Act states that mental illness must be determined in accordance with nationally and internationally accepted medical standards including the latest edition of the International Classification of Disease of the World Health Organisation. Moreover, this Act asserts that no person or authority shall classify an individual as a person with mental illness unless in directly in relation with treatment of the illness. Additionally, insurers are now bound to make provisions for medical insurance for the treatment of mental illness on the same basis as is available for the treatment of physical ailments. The basic theme of this paper is to highlight the outstanding features of the Mental Healthcare Act which is obviously a landmark legislation for poor developing country like India.