*11.05.2011* *Hary M. Pillai* *New Delhi*: A NGO Mental Health Foundation (MHF) today filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the Delhi High Court seeking from the court a declaration that section 309 of Indian Penal Code (IPC), 1860 is ultra vires the Constitution of India.
Petitioner foundation also sought directions from the court to the government to implement the 210th Report of the Law Commission of India (LCI), which recommended repealing of section 309 from the IPC. Section 309 of IPC provides for punishment for attempting suicide. Under this section anyone who attempts to commit suicide or does any act towards committing such offence is liable to be punished with one year simple imprisonment or fine or both. The LCI report claimed that, “attempt to suicide may be regarded more as a manifestation of a diseased condition of mind deserving treatment and care rather than an offence to be visited with punishment”. The report further said, that the Supreme Court in the Gian Kaur case focused on the constitutionality of section 309 and did not go into the issue of retention of the provision. The LCI report also said that apart from India only a handful of nations including Pakistan, Malaysia, Bangladesh and Singapore have retained this ‘undesirable or anachronistic law’, while many nations all over the world have decriminalized attempted suicide. Thus in view of the observations expressed by the World Health Organization on this matter and various other organisations, LCI firmed its report recommending deleting of the section. The Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court in Gian Kaur vs. State of Punjab in (1996) had held that the Fundamental Rights guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution do not contain within them the ‘right to die’ and thus section 309 of IPC is not in violation of Article 21. But in the recent case of Aruna Ramachandra Shanbaug vs. Union of India, (reported in Law et al. News) the Division Bench of Supreme Court had held, “we are of the opinion that although Section 309 Indian Penal Code has been held to be constitutionally valid in Gian Kaur's case, the time has come when it should be deleted by Parliament as it has become anachronistic. A person attempts suicide in a depression, and hence he needs help, rather than punishment. We therefore recommend to Parliament to consider the feasibility of deleting Section 309 from the Indian Penal Code.” Advocate Aditya Shankar representing MHF, claimed that as per the studies conducted by professionals and Indian researchers, the number of suicides committed from 1996-2006, in a data collected by the National Crime Records Bureau, has seen an increase of about 33.9% from 1996 to 2006. This included male and female youth (15-29 years), middle-aged people (30-44 years) and senior citizens. He argued that neither the National Crime Records Bureau nor any Governmental Department namely Ministry of Health, Home Affairs, Law and Justice collected data relating to attempted suicides. He further argued that since 2008, when the LCI gave its report, no steps have been taken by the various responsible ministries or the government as a whole to address the issue. The Division Bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justice Sanjiv Khanna observed that the court did not have the power to direct the legislature to legislate, instead the court sought a response from ASG AS Chandioke, who was representing the Union of India. MHF is a registered Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), founded in 2003 by psychiatrist Dr. Nand Kumar and it claims to be dedicated to the cause of containment of mental illnesses like schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression, obsessive compulsive disorder and improvement of quality of life of all persons afflicted by such illnesses directly or indirectly. Read our coverage of Aruna Ramachandra Shanbaug vs. Union of India at http://www.lawetalnews.com/NewsDetail.asp?newsid=3571 and http://www.lawetalnews.com/NewsDetail.asp?newsid=3580 via http://www.lawetalnews.com/NewsDetail.asp?newsid=3977 -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Mental Health Advocacy (News 'N Views) India" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/MhaNewsViewsIndia?hl=en ------------- Affiliated Groups : MENTAL HEALTH ADVOCACY INDIA [email protected] Discussions on mental health law / policy / plan monitoring / human rights etc [email protected] India-specific news and views related to mental health [email protected] Information and support to carers of people with mental health issues [email protected] Mutual support and sharing of experiential knowledge, skills and social learning amongst peers
