The institute was inaugurated on 27 December 1974, establishing it as an autonomous body under the Societies Registration Act to lead in the area of medical service and research in the country.
[10] In March 2017, the Government of India passed the Mental Healthcare Bill 2016, which also proposes to set up NIMHANS-like institutions across the nation.
[19] A state-of-the-art convention centre located in the main campus frequently hosts international conferences, seminars, trade shows, expositions, and media events.
[31] Preeti Jacob, from the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, was quoted as saying "Juveniles are less culpable and are much more amenable to rehabilitative efforts and thus should not be transferred to the adult criminal justice system.
The assessments that are being proposed in the bill in order to ascertain the mental capacity to commit an offence are arbitrary and unscientific.
"[32][33] In December 2014, it was reported that a soldier from the Indian Navy was being held in NIMHANS for a month to evaluate whether he was suffering from mental illness, after acting as a whistleblower.
[34][35] In July 2013, TOI reported that NIMHANS was collaborating with the Central Bureau of Investigation to train its staff with interrogation techniques.
[36] In 2012, the central government approached NIMHANS to suppress anti-nuclear protests in regard to building the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant.
Some of the prominent people associated with the institute include clinical psychologists H. Narayan Murthy,[43] Radhika Chandiramani,[44] Satwant Pasricha,[45] Elayidath Muhammad,[46] philosophers and yoga therapists S. K. Ramachandra Rao[47] H. R. Nagendra,[48] psychiatrists M. Sarada Menon,[49] Shekhar Seshadri,[50] Jaswant Singh Neki,[citation needed] Valsamma Eapen,[51] neuroscientists, Akhilesh Pandey[52] Turaga Desiraju,[53] S. K. Shankar, Vijayalakshmi Ravindranath,[54] Ganesan Venkatasubramanian[55] Bilikere Dwarakanath,[56] neurologists Naeem Sadiq,[57] Sunil Pradhan,[58] and neurosurgeons, N. K. Venkataramana,[59] R. Marthanda Varma among others.