Victims of abortive suicide bids will not be subjected to criminal trial as the Centre has decided to scrap Section 309 from the Indian Penal Code (IPC) that makes attempt to commit suicide a punishable offence with a maximum of one-year imprisonment and fine.
In a written reply to the Rajya Sabha to a question on the progress made on a law Commission report that proposed decriminalising IPC Section 309, Minister of State for Home Haribhai Parathibhai Chaudhary informed the Upper House that 18 States and four Union Territories approved the 210th report of the law Commission paving way for effacing out the controversial provision from the statute book.
“Eighteen States and four Union Territory administrations have supported that Section 309 of the IPC may be deleted. Keeping in view the responses from the States/ UTs, it has been decided to delete Section 309 of IPC from the statute book.
“Five States — Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Sikkim and Delhi — did not fully support the move citing reservations,” Chaudhary said. The Commission had regarded attempt to suicide as a “manifestation of a diseased condition of mind” deserving treatment and care rather than punishment.
A Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court in Gian Kaur v State of Punjab in 1996 had upheld the validity of Section 309 on the ground that Right to life under Article 21 did not give citizens the right to die as Constitution upholds the right to live and cannot be expected to grant a right that extinguishes this valuable right.
Bihar sought a separate legislation to take care of persons suffering from such kinds of “disease”, apprehending that the removing Section 3039 from IPC will benefit suicide bombers who fail in their attempt terrorists who try to end their lives by consuming cyanide pills.
Madhya Pradesh argued that deleting Section 309 would further dilute Section 306 (abetment of suicide). It left it to courts to consider whether or not to punish the victims of attempted suicide after considering their mental status and circumstances. It cited statistics to suggest out of 100 such cases only five were sent behind bars. Also, it pointed out a tendency of various social activists who threaten to go on a fast- unto-death or attempt self immolation. “If the Section is deleted, then there is no provision for police to book these persons,” the state said.