Suicide Under The Mental Healthcare Act, 2017

Rida Zaidi, LLM, Intellectual Property and Trade Law from School of Law, Christ University Bengaluru

ABSTRACT

Suicide cases have been on the rise with every passing day. The Mental Healthcare Act, of 2017 was enacted as a transformative step by decriminalizing suicide and suicidal attempts. The Act made a change in the approach taken by the government against people suffering from mental health issues by sympathizing with them instead of holding them liable for the offense of attempting suicide. The Act considers a person to be undergoing severe stress which resulted in attempting suicide thereby exempting him from trial and prosecution. Section 115 overrides Section 309 of the earlier Indian Penal Code now Section 226 of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). The Act directs the government to provide rehabilitation, treatment, and mental support to those individuals. The Act was passed as a result of wide recognition of the seriousness of growing mental health problems and not to aggravate the stress and anguish of such persons by placing them into a vulnerable position twice that is once when they undergo stress that results in the suicidal attempt and secondly if they are held accountable for their actions. The Mental Healthcare Act, of 2017 is a praiseworthy legislation protecting the interests of persons suffering from mental health problems but on the other hand, the Act still holds certain gaps and ambiguities that need to be addressed to make the Act more effective in letter and spirit. This paper will deal with Section 115 of the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017, and the current position pertaining to suicide in terms of the Act in India.