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Court takes first step towards taking suicide off list of crimes -Dhananjay Mahapatra

-The Times of India

NEW DELHI: In its path-breaking verdict linking right to life with right to die with dignity, the Supreme Court on Friday took the first step towards giving judicial support to the much canvassed proposition that it was inhuman to punish a distressed person who failed to end his life through suicide.

Section 309 of IPC provides that "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)". A private member's bill, moved by BJD MP Baijayant Panda in Parliament in 2016, proposed to decriminalise suicide except where it was intended to incite public anger and create a law and order situation.

In his 134-page judgment, Justice D Y Chandrachud touched on this issue and said a constitution bench of the SC in 1996 in Gian Kaur case had ruled that right to life did not include the right to die. The 22-year-old judgment said right to live with dignity could not be construed to include the right to terminate natural life "at least before commencement of the natural process of certain death", he said.

"This court's holding in Gian Kaur that the right to life does not include the right to die in the context of suicide may require to be revisited in future in view of domestic and international developments pointing towards decriminalisation of suicide," Justice Chandrachud said.

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