Not a crime

The government has done well to initiate a move to decriminalise attempted suicide, arising out of mental illness, which now invites a prison term with or without a fine. Section 309 of the IPC, which is a colonial era legislation, has considered attempted suicide as a criminal offence.

The idea behind the provision was that no one has the right to take a life, whether it is one’s own or another person’s. But the thinking on suicide has changed vastly the world over and India is among the very few countries where such a provision exists. Britain, whose laws had inspired the Indian provision, abolished it long ago. Enlightened social and legal opinion has for many years sought the scrapping of Section 309. The law commission has made a strong recommendation, PILs have been filed in courts and public campaigns have been undertaken to drop the relevant law.

The present move is to incorporate a provision in the new Mental Healthcare Bill, 2012, to the effect that no complaint, investigation or prosecution should be entertained against a person who attempted to commit suicide, notwithstanding any provision in other laws. It is to be introduced in the next session of parliament. The police will have to seek psychiatric help to find out whether a person who tried to commit suicide did so because of a mental disorder.

A case can be registered only if the reasons are different. The move has to go further and the need is to scrap section 309 altogether. The Centre had written to state governments eliciting their views on the matter and most of them have favoured deletion of the provision.

Those who attempt to commit suicide do so in despair and most often because of circumstances beyond their control and in situations which they cannot cope with. They deserve sympathy, understanding and help rather than punishment. Since in many cases the dividing line between clinical illness on the one hand and mental aberration or a stressful situation on the other is not clear, it is better to scrap the IPC provision as such.

A penal law is no deterrent against suicide and the absence of law does not result in a higher number of suicides. India has a high suicide rate. The reasons have to be found in personal, social and economic situations and the answers have to come from there. There cannot be a legal solution.