The Government has decided to decriminalise ‘attempt to suicide’ by scrapping it from the Indian Penal Code.
Section 309 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860, prescribes one year imprisonment and a fine if a person is found guilty of attempting to commit suicide.
Replying to an unstarred question in the Rajya Sabha on the government's initiative to repeal Section 309, Minister of State for Home Affairs Haribhai Parathbhai Chaudhary said the decision was taken after studying feedback from the States and the Union Territories.
The decision comes six years after the Law Commission of India recommended the repeal of Section 309 saying the act of taking one's own life should be treated as a manifestation of “deep unhappiness” rather than a penal offence.
The Minister referred to the same report while conveying the government's decision in the Upper House.
