Attempted Suicide under the Mental Healthcare Act

The Mental Healthcare Act, 2017 adopts a care-based rather than a punitive approach towards a person who attempts suicide. Section 115 presumes, unless proved otherwise, that such a person was under severe stress and protects the person from trial and punishment under the penal provision referred to in that section.

Statutory protection under Section 115

• Section 115 applies notwithstanding Section 309 of the Indian Penal Code, as referred to in the Mental Healthcare Act.
• A person who attempts suicide is presumed to have been under severe stress unless the contrary is proved.
• On the basis of this presumption, the person shall not be tried and punished under the penal provision referred to in Section 115.
• The presumption is rebuttable because the Act uses the expression “unless proved otherwise”; therefore, the protection is not framed as an absolute statutory rule in every case.

Duty of the government

The Act supplements protection from punishment with a positive obligation to address the person’s mental-health needs.

• The appropriate government must provide care, treatment and rehabilitation to a person who attempted suicide while under severe stress.
• Such support must aim to reduce the risk of recurrence of an attempt to commit suicide.

Underlying approach

Section 115 treats an attempted suicide primarily as an indication of severe distress requiring healthcare and rehabilitation. It therefore shifts the institutional response from punishment towards prevention, treatment and recovery.

How UPSC asks this

For Prelims, focus on Section 115, the rebuttable presumption of severe stress and the government’s duty to provide care, treatment and rehabilitation. For Mains, it illustrates the shift from criminalisation towards a rights-based, public-health response to suicide prevention and mental healthcare.