ABSTRACT
India has signed the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, 2006 (hereinafter CRPD), and ratified the same in October 2007. To give effect to the principles enshrined in the CRPD, the government has adopted the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 (hereinafter RPWD, 2016). Article 12 of the CRPD affirms that persons with disabilities, including disability due to mental illness, have the right to recognition everywhere as persons before the law. It is also significant to mention that the disability rights movement in India has put the Indian government under pressure to address the challenges confronted by persons with disabilities. ‘Legal capacity’ can simply be understood as an attribute of personhood which allows a person to have his or her rights and obligations recognised under a legal system. It can be defined as ‘a person’s power or possibility to act within the framework of the legal system’.
