KOCHI: The Mental Health Care Act, which protects a person from punishment under IPC if they attempt suicide, has come to the aid of a woman who was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for strangling her 15-month-old baby in 2016, as she had also attempted suicide at that time.
Referring to the provisions of the law, the Kerala High Court acquitted the woman who was convicted by the Sessions Court in 2023, saying that she was suffering from severe mental stress and had attempted to commit suicide when the incident occurred.
The law, which came into effect in 2018, was earlier ruled by the Kerala High Court to have retrospective effect.
In this case, the Supreme Court said the law was in force when the trial began in 2021 and therefore the Sessions Court should have taken it into account.
A bench of Justices Raja Vijayaraghavan V and KV Jayakumar said the woman had attempted suicide by consuming a large quantity of paracetamol tablets, inflicted injuries on her wrists with a sharp object and had also written a suicide note before committing the acts, indicating that she was under severe mental stress.
“These circumstances constitute, prima facie, material evidence relevant to the allegations of attempted suicide. However, for reasons known to the prosecution, no serious effort has been made to prove the charge under Section 309 of the IPC,” the court said.
“In the above circumstances, we are of the view that the provisions of Section 115 of the Mental Health Care Act, 2017 would directly apply to the facts of the present case and the appellant would be deemed to be under mental duress and cannot be punished for any of the offenses under the IPC,” the bench said in its June 8 ruling.
The prosecution has contended that since the accused was acquitted of the crime under Section 309 IPC, the legal presumption laid down under Section 115 of the Mental Health Care Act 2017 would have no application to the facts of the present case.
The Supreme Court rejected this claim saying that during the arguments before the lower court, the prosecution itself did not seriously pursue the charge under Section 309 of the IPC.
“We further find that the acquittal of the appellant under Section 309 IPC was not based on a positive finding that there was no attempt to commit suicide. On the contrary, the Sessions Judge appears to have proceeded on the concession made by the Public Prosecutor and on the premise that the prosecution had failed to prove that the injuries sustained by the accused were sufficient in the ordinary course to cause death.
“Such an approach is, in our view, legally unsustainable,” she added.
The bench said that the reasoning adopted by the sessions judge that the offense under Section 309 of the IPC was not attracted merely because the injuries to the wrists and elbows were not sufficient to cause death, “cannot be sustained”.
“Such an interpretation goes beyond the plain language of the text and ignores the distinction between a suicide attempt and the actual possibility of death as a result of the actions committed.”
“Section 309 of the IPC focuses on the attempted commission and the acts committed to commit it, not the ultimate seriousness or lethal potential of the injuries sustained,” she said.
The Supreme Court accepted the woman’s appeal and overturned her conviction and life sentence.
“..the appellant/accused has been released,” she said.
The woman had appealed the session court’s decision issued in November 2023 convicting her and sentencing her to life imprisonment on charges of killing her child in February 2016.
According to her, she has been subjected to constant cruelty and harassment by her husband and in-laws since her marriage by accusing her of maintaining an illicit relationship with another person, and questioning the paternity of the child.
She also alleged that she was subjected to constant demands for additional dowry and suffered mental and physical cruelty.
Her case was that the cumulative effect of these events caused her severe psychological trauma, which ultimately led her to attempt suicide on 16 February 2016 by taking 14 paracetamol tablets.
She stated that she lost consciousness after taking the tablets, and therefore she had no knowledge of how her wrists were cut or what happened to the minor child after that.
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