Abstract:
This research paper is to determine the constitutionality of the attempt to commit suicide several cases are cited in a support of it. The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) releases the statics every year that traumatism results in 34% counted suicide in India annually, those huge numbers of individuals charged under Section 309 of the Indian Penal Code if they somehow survive from king suicide is why they considered merciless and remorseless by various judges of the supreme court and high court of India.
In 2017 government by taking a progressive step enacted the Mental health care Act, and by the virtue of section 115(1) of this mental health care Act, suicide attempters who attempt suicide because of mental health will not be charged under the section 309 condition provided they need to prove the mental stress and depression and subsection (2) of section 115 imposes the obligation on the competent authority to provide treatment and rehabilitation to a person, having severe stress and who attempted to commit in 2022 government of India taken a reformist step “National Suicide Prevention Strategy” a multi-sectorial action with a common motive to decrease the suicide rate by 10% till 2030 this kind of things is new in India as multiple sectors need to work together to make it successful. The author has answered why the government of India is not removing section 309 from the penal code despite coming effective because others cause people to get influenced and end their life.
Keywords: Mental health, Suicide, Suicide attemper, Suicide law, IPC section 309, Crime, right to life, Right to die.
Introduction:
” Do not punish the helpless, help the helpless”– Shri Justice Jaghirdar.
The word “suicide ” is a combination of two words first one is Sui which means one own self, and another is cide which literary means killing or killer so, so suicide denotes killing onone’swn self, and an attempt to suicide means an unsuccessful try at suicide. According to World Health Organisation around 800,000 peoples end their life across the world and for each suicide, there are more than 20 suicide attempts[1]. According to The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) the number of suicide deaths in India in august 2021, by 7.2 % increase from the previous year which was 1,64,033 suicides in 2021. The age group of 18 to <30 years and persons of 30 to <45 years of age accounted for 34.5% and 31.7% of total suicides, respectively and huge numbers are an attempt to suicide reported and unreported across India[2].
Indian penal code is the primary criminal code which is substantive in nature it recognizes various kinds of crimes however the word suicide is defined by the IPC and an attempt to commit suicide is one of the offenses against the body describe under section 309 as” Whoever attempts to commit suicide and does any act towards the commission of such offense, shall be punished with simple imprisonment for a term which may extend to one year or with fine, or with both[3].
The general rule is that both completion of an offense and attempt of it is a crime under IPC however, the attempt to suicide is of such a nature if you succeed in it you will be free from all statutory criminal liabilities but, when you succeed in an attempt then you will attract several criminal liabilities.
Efforts have been taken from time to time to scrape section 309 from IPC because it considers an inhumane law because punishing a person who has already mentally suffered first step was taken in the year 1970 in the 42nd report of the law commission of India[4] recommended the deletion of the offense of the attempt to commit suicide from the penal code, the recommendation was accepted by the government of India but before it could be passed by Lok Sabha in 1979, elected body of the country was dissolved and the bill had lapsed.
After several decades in August 2013, a Mental health care bill was introduced in Rajya Sabha and the year 2017 it became an act of Mental health care Act 2017. This act was enacted with great effort because section 115 of this act attempts to suicide decriminalized but, with the condition presumption of severe mental stress, section state in section 115(1) notwithstanding anything contained in Section 309 of the Indian Penal Code any person who attempts to commit suicide shall be presumed, unless proved otherwise, to have severe stress and shall not be tried and punished under the said code” attempers shall not be charged under section 309 of IPC if it is proved that suicide has been attempted because of severe mental stress. Subsection (2) of it creates an obligation upon the government as “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”[5].
Research Objectives:
- To understand the constitutionality of an attempt to Suicide with the judicial decisions.
- To understand why section 309 is considered inhumane and why lawmakers insert it in the penal code of India.
- Why has section 309 not been removed yet?
- Determine other ways to rehabilitate the Suicide attempters.
Research Questions:
- Whether The Attempt To Suicide Is Legal In India Or Not?
- What Are The Reasons Why Parliament Has Not Repealed Section 309?
Research methodology:
This descriptive research paper aims to determine the constitutionality of section 309 of IPC and the need for humane suicide laws like the Mental health care Act, of 2017. This research is descriptive in nature and based on secondary sources such as news articles, blogs, organizational reports, online journals, government websites, and publications.
Review of Literature:
1. De-Criminalization of Suicide: An Overview, Key Practical Challenges, and Suggestions to Address Them – by Barikar C. Malathesh, Sai Krishna Tikka, published in Indian Journal of Psychological Medicine[6].
Authors have described the medical perspective of suicide and suicide attempters according to the article there are many ways to commit suicide which are the most common: Drug Overdose (DO), organophosphorus poisoning (OPP), attempted hanging, self-harm (cutting wrist arteries or throat artery), burns, etc. The authors have emphasized registering the first information report to the police and documentation of the profile of the suicide patient as Medico-Legal Case (MLC), which results in getting the initial evidence e.g. Toxicology Sample these things are institutional practices advocated by Standard operating procedure (SOPs).
In this article authors have highlighted two questions (a) It is Suicide or Homicide? (b) Is there any abatement of suicide? in keeping with the above questions they suggest the action based on different suicide patients with different medical stability which showed in the table.
| TABLE 1. Situations in Which Attempted/Completed Suicides Can Present to Medical Settings, from a Legal Perspective, and Suggested Actions | |
| Scenario | Suggested Actions |
| 1. Attempted suicide: no foul play suspected concerning homicide or abetment of suicide, and the patient is likely to remain medically stable. | Do not register medico-legal cases (MLC) refer to a psychiatrist |
| 2. Attempted suicide: no foul play suspected concerning homicide or abetment of suicide, and the patient is unlikely to remain medically stable. | Register MLC to reduce litigations on doctors in case of death; refer to a psychiatrist after medically stabilizing the patient |
| 3. Attempted suicide: foul play suspected of homicide or abetment of suicide. | Register MLC; police can interview the patient to collect crucial information for their investigation, in a sensitive manner |
| 4. Completed suicide (foul play suspected or not) | Register MLC; proceed with a post-mortem to collect samples for ascertaining the cause of death |
Authors criticize section 309 of IPC and argue that there is no proven evidence that shows section 309 acted as a deterrent to those who commit suicide rather, they recommend some ways to tackle this issue like conducting workshops and programs even for the police personnel and criticize the behavior of police officer towards the suicide attempters. And there is also a need to develop standard operating protocols.
- Decriminalization of suicide as per Section 115 of Mental Health Care Act 2017
In this research paper authors collected data from the primary sources by surveying the common masses the greater number of participants were belong to the young generation from the 25-44 age group the participants were asked questions related to Suicidal laws of India to know how much Indian is aware of this and what they think of it, the questions were basic such as: are you aware of section 309 IPC? Do you think it is justified to punish suicide attempers? Are you aware of section 115 of the Mental health care Act 2017? Do you think passing the mental health care Act was a good decision?
The outcome of the survey was partisan (70%) were unaware of the section 309 IPC or attempt to Suicide is treated as a criminal offense and after being informed about it (83%) people think it is unjustified to punish a suicide attempers as they already suffering from the mental health and making it punishable it worsen their mental health more over among them on one was aware of the Mental health care Act,2017 which attempts to suicide decriminalized and (90%) participants were in favor of this act as the savior of the suicide attempters from the criminal Liabilities.
The findings of this survey were that there is least awareness about this not even the suicide attempters don’t know these kinds of laws exist from which they would attract criminal liability. The authors insist that public health makers need to consider planning programs to increase awareness about section 115 of the Mental health care Act, media and hospital need to work together to remove the ignorant behavior of people towards mental health and suicide attempters.
Analysis with case laws:
One of the essential reasons based on the theological idea is why the attempt to commit suicide is punishable because it is an unnatural death and is believed that only God can take away individual life and killing own self is regarded as a malicious act. Another reason is that it acted as deterrence or to discourage suicide attempters from committing it. In several judicial decisions, the judiciary has argued against the criminality of an attempt to commit suicide.
In the case of State v. Sanjay Kumar Bhatia[7] in 1985, as per Sachar J ” It is ironic that Section 309 Indian Penal Code continues to be in our Penal Code. The result is that a young boy driven to such frustration to seek his own life would have escaped human punishment if he had succeeded but is to be bound by the police because the attempt has failed. The strange paradox is that in the age of votaries of Euthanasia, suicide should be criminally punishable. Instead of sending the young boy to a psychiatric clinic it gleefully sends him to mingle with criminals. The continuance of Section 309 Indian Penal Code is an anachronism unworthy of a humane society like ours. The very idea is revolting.” It clearly stated that justice emphasizes repealing section 309 of the Indian Penal Code.
In Maruti Shripati Dubal v. State of Maharashtra[8] case bring the question in light the constitutionality of an attempt to commit suicide Bombay High court applied the logic here as under Article 19 a freedom of speech and expression and freedom not to speak or to stay silent both the right are incorporated and the freedom of association and movement likewise includes the freedom not to join any association or not to move anywhere if this is so, logically it must follow that under Article 21 which promises to right live with dignity also contains the right to die in this context court states –
“It is an incident of abnormality or an extraordinary situation or an uncommon trait of personality. These being mental disease and imbalances, unbearable physical ailments, affliction by socially-dreaded diseases, decrepit physical conditions disabling the person from taking normal care of his body and performing the normal chores, the loss of all senses or desire for the pleasures of any of the senses, extremely cruel or unbearable conditions of life making it painful to live, a sense of shame or disgrace or a need to defend one’s honor or a sheer loss of interest in life or disenchantment with it, or a sense of fulfillment of the purpose for which one was born with nothing more left to do or to be achieved and a genuine urge to quit the world at the proper moment is among the various circumstances in which suicide is committed or attempted.”
In P. Rathinam v. Union of India[9] the judges of the supreme court agreed with the opinion of Maruti Shripati Dubal v. State of Maharashtra and held criminality of Attempt to Suicide unconstitutional and section 309 need to be deleted from the Indian penal code.
By the virtue of a judgment of Maruti Shripati Dubal v. State of Maharashtra and P. Rathinam v. Union of India, the attempt to suicide is decriminalized and the right to die is fundamental but, the question arose if an attempt to commit suicide is not a crime then how can be the assistant to such act become punishable it is contented by Justice Verma, “Any aspect of life which makes it dignified may be read into it but not that which extinguishes it and is, therefore, inconsistent with the continued existence of life resulting in effacing the right itself.”
Reasons Why Parliament Still Not Remove Section 309 From The Penal Code :
Parliament has decriminalized indirectly through the Mental health care Act, with the condition of resumption of severe mental health but the question arose in the mind of the people why the legislative body hasn’t been scraping section 309 from the Indian criminal code because there are causes which trigger the mind of the suicide attempters other than mental health issues to a person to commit suicide if we look at section 306 which state about the assistance and abatement of committing suicide in a case that legislature completely decriminalized or remove from the code than abating and assisting of attempting suicide also become legal as the result of it the abator of suicide will be set free and no action would be charged against him and this is the one of the foremost justification of the legislature not to repeal the section 309.
Many people suicide in sudden response to an event it doesn’t mean they suffered mentally from a prolonged depression if we took the example of Hitler he committed suicide in a response to losing the war here section 309 acts as a deterrence for suicide attempers and for others as well. The event could be anything that inflicts a person to end their life.
Strife could be the reason not to remove section 309 people murder themselves in social and political conflict. For example, Manipuri rights activist Irom Sharmila she oathed to fast unto death in Jantar Mantar against the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) she struggle and fight with the system by way to fasting police several times charged her under section 309 attempting to commit suicide to stop her. Because of these reasons, lawmakers inserted section 309 and the government did not repeal the same.
SUGGESTION:
The government of India has always been sluggish and responsive in any emergencies, Britisher who made our criminal code had already repealed such an inhumane law from their criminal code in 1961 by taking progressive steps however India always takes time to react but, now government to need to actively participate to bring down the rates of suicide case at the first place and government initiated with “National Suicide Preventive Strategy” to reduce the mortality due to suicide by 10 percent by 2030 the only need is to implement effectively.
Experts in the legal field suggested that enacting separate but equivalent legislation to make the abatement and assisting a suicide criminal activity is only the way that parliament can remove section 309 from the Indian penal code.
CONCLUSION:
In a conclusion, we can say that if the attempt is the successful person becomes free from all the duties and liabilities but now if the attempt of suicide become unsuccessful then also suicide attempers will be liable for any criminal activity provided that it needs to prove suicide is being attempted because of mental illness or severe stress otherwise section 115 of Mental health care Act 2017 will not be applicable. Moreover, the government will provide treatment and rehabilitation to suicide attempters.
AUTHOR:
Name:- Mariya Masood khan
College Name :- Advocate Balasaheb Apte College of law. dadar Mumbai Maharashtra
[1] https://www.who.int/india/health-topics/suicide.
[2] https://ncrb.gov.in/en/accidental-deaths-suicides-india-adsi.
[3] https://indiankanoon.org/doc/1501595/.
[4]https://criminallawreforms.in/reports/lci-reports/42nd%20Report%20on%20the%20Indian%20Penal%20Code.pdf.
[5] https://egazette.nic.in/WriteReadData/2017/175248.pdf.
[6] Malathesh BC., Tikka Sk, Jain V, S Yadukul and Math SB. De-Criminalization of Suicide: An Overview, Key Practical Challenges, and Suggestions to Address Them. Indian J Psychol Med. 2022;44(3):290–292.
[7]State vs Sanjay Kumar Bhatia on 29 March 1985.