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DECRIMINALIZATION OF SUICIDE - BY SARANYA RAJENDRAN

INTRODUCTION 
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one’s own death. In other words, Suicides are impulsive acts due to stress. Attempted suicide or non-fatal suicidal behavior is self injury it involves at least some desire to end one’s life that does not result in death, usually the person attempting survives the attempt. In India, the correlates of suicide were family problems, illness, insanity/mental illness, unemployment, love affairs, drug abuse or addiction, dowry dispute, Homosexuality, Bullying. The 93% of such suicide are among teens with mental disorders and drug addiction. Suicide is generally condemned on two major reasons. First being the religious perspectives that argues “God only should have the right to dictate the end of life of a person and when a person attempts to end the life, which is a God’s gift, it is considered as a sinful act”. Another reason is that the belief that "law can act as a deterrent against other such attempts in the society".
DECRIMINALIZATION OF SUICIDE - THE RIGHT TO DIE
Section 309 of the Indian penal Code, 1860 provides that attempting suicide is a crime and the survivor is punished accordingly. The provision reads as: “S-309 Attempt to commit suicide:whoever attempts to commit suicide and does any act towards the commission of such offence shall be punished with simple imprisonment for a term which may extend to one year and shall also be liable to fine.” The Indian Penal Code had been formulated during the British Regime and was majorly governed by the British law that time. India continues to follow such archaic law eventhough the British Parliament itself had decriminalized the crime of suicide way back in 1961. Over the past decades the constitutional validity of the said provision is very much challenged on the ground that it violates Article 21 of the Indian constitution which states that “no person shall be deprived of his life and liberty except according to the procedure established by law”. In MARUTI SHRIPTI DUBAL V. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA 1987 (1) BOM CR 499, it is ruled by the court that section 309 violates article 21 and it is unconstitutional. The court further stated where the freedom to remain silent exists concurrently with the freedom of speech and expression, there also exists a right to die concurrently with the right to life, i.e., the desire to die is not unnatural and so there exists a right to die. The Delhi High Court in 1985 had commented that “ the continuance of section 309 of IPC is an anachronism unworthy of human society like ours”. The Supreme Court in P. RATHNAM V. UNION OF INDIA 1994 AIR 184, 1994 SCC(3) 394 held Section 309 of IPC as unconstitutional and void as it violates article 21 of the Indian Constitution. This was overruled in SMT. GIAN KAUR V. STATE OF PUNJAB 1996 AIR 946, 1996 SCC(2) 648. Where the Supreme Court explained that the right to life is natural while suicide is considered as an unnatural extinction of life and therefore the latter seems inconsistent with the former. It is explained that those aspects of life which are in accord with and will add on to life with dignity can be read into article 21 and not those which extinguishes it. The court upheld the constitutional validity of section 309 of IPC. Considering the controversies over decades the 42nd Law Commission Report, 1971 undertook to revise IPC along with other Central Acts and as a result of which it recommended repealing section 309  and suggested a new section which reads as whoever by persistent acts of cruelty, drives a member of his family living with him to commit suicide, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description of the term which may extend to 3 years, and may also be liable to fine. The bill was passed in Rajya Sabha in the same year, yet the bill lapsed in Lok Sabha. The 210th Law Commission Report recommended that section 309 of IPC should be effaced from the code, because it is Inhuman, irrespective of being constitutional or unconstitutional. It is stated the provision merely implies double punishment for a person who has already fed up with his own life and desires to end his life. At last by the Mental Health Care Act 2017, which came into force in 2018, the scope of Section 309 of Indian Penal Code was limited without repealing it from the code. The relevant provision of the said act states as “Section 115-Notwithstanding anything contained in section 309 of IPC  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". The major idea behind the suicidal behaviour is a result of some host factors that are often outside the person’s control. Therefore, the victim who chose to end his life, who is left with no other alternative has to be treated, not punished. The fortunate reason that why still section 309 is not repealed is that the provision of the Mental Health Care Act remains silent in defining or to explain what can be taken as severe stress and what steps can be taken where there present no severe stress in an attempted suicide. Section 309 of the Indian penal Code will be handy to deal with such cases. Those persons will be charged under section 309 0f IPC and it is made to cure the lacuna without violating the basic of section 115 of Mental Health Care Act.
CONCLUSION
The decriminalization of Suicide is a great measure by the Government. Since, it is the Government’s duty to provide care, treatment and rehabilitation to a person having stress and attempted to commit suicide inorder to reduce the risk of recurrence of suicidal ideation in his mind. This helps in improvement of overall life of a suicide victim.

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