Attempting suicide no longer crime under IPC

NEW DELHI: The state will now have no power to forcibly take a fasting Iron Sharmila or Anna Hazare to hospital to stop them from giving up their life. An attempt to commit suicide is no longer an offence, with the home ministry deciding to delete the provision from the statute book.

"We welcome this step as the state has abused this provision to suppress the political struggle of Sharmila and arrest her wrongly many times over the last 15 years using this provision. There is no point criminalising an act of attempted suicide," Sharmila's associate Babloo Loitongbam told ET.

The Centre has taken this step despite concerns from some states that they would be handicapped from stopping persons who resort to threatening the government by sitting on fast until death or self immolation to press for their demands. The Delhi government even asked the Centre to create special statutory provisions for conferring powers on the police to prevent suicide attempts when it is done as a blackmail tactic.

For years, the states have been forcibly removing protestors like Irom Sharmila from fast-unto-death sites and moving them to hospitals on the grounds that their actions amounted to attempting suicide punishable under Section 309 of the Indian Penal Code. A person who survives an attempted suicide can be prosecuted under the section for up to a year's jail term. The move has the backing of 18 states and four Union Territories.