Sir,
The Govt. decision on decriminalization of ‘Attempt to suicide’ should be welcomed by all. Sec 309 of IPC states ‘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(or with fine or with both).
This law in my opinion has no logic or justification. It is cruel and inhuman as it provides double punishment for the troubled individual whose deep unhappiness had caused him to try end his life. It means law is labelling a victim as criminal which is very difficult to justify. Victim of suicide is prone to many psychological problem but instead of relieving them of their distress, we tend to punish them by putting them in jails. It means the Govt. is taxing a beggar to make his/her situation worse than before.
According to Govt. data, 134799 people committed suicide in 2013 and this number increased in 2014. However no official data is there on number of attempted suicide. There may be many reasons that lead a person to suicide like psychological problems, mental depression etc. in addition to that, social conditions may be such that a person is not fit enough to accept the same. Like if I talk about high division of labour, a person gets detached from his fellow beings and thus unable to share sentiments with their fellow beings. This brings the state of anomie and a person tends towards the extreme step i.e. suicide.
Law commission said in its report that sympathy, counseling and proper treatment and not punishment will prevent a person from committing suicide. Only a handful of nations like India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Singapore have persisted with this undesirable law.
There is a need of change in the institutional framework to prevent the cases of suicides. Moreover, people with suicidal tendencies deserve counseling and not legal action.
Yours etc…..
Zirgham Hamid
The law school
Jammu University
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