The Supreme Court, on Friday, sent a notice to the Union government asking it to explain the contradictions between the Indian Penal Code and the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017, over the laws governing an attempt to suicide. The apex court noted that while Section 309 of IPC states that suicide is a punishable offence, the MH Act decriminalises the same.
A Bench of Chief Justice of India SA Bobde, Justice AS Bopanna and Justice V Ramasubramanian issued a notice to the Attorney General for India, asking the Union of India to justify the validity of Section 115 of the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017 which “virtually negates” Section 309 IPC.
Section 309 criminalises any attempt to suicide or any such assistance to suicide. Section 115 of the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017 talks about the “Presumption of severe stress in case of attempt to suicide.” Part (1) states: “Notwithstanding anything contained in section 309 of the Indian Penal Code (45 of 1860) 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.”
Part (2) states: “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 of suicide.”
According to a report in Bar and Bench, the Supreme Court questioned how a provision of the IPC could be rendered ineffective by enacting a Central legislation.
During the hearing, CJI Bobde pointed out that sometimes, a person attempts to take his or her own life is “not under extreme stress or is not of unsound mind.”
"Some priests and monks killed themselves in protest and they were in complete calmness of mind. Then there are people who do Santhara (Jain religious practice of voluntarily fasting to death),” he said.
The court was hearing a petition seeking directions to ensure prevention of attempts of suicide by persons by throwing themselves in the animal enclosures in zoos, which stated that this attempt is punishable under Section 309 of the India Penal Code.
The court also tagged this petition with a pending matter that challenges the constitutional validity of Section 309 of IPC, which criminalises suicide. The court has also appointed advocate ANS Nadkarni as Amicus Curiae to assist the Court in the matter.