Kerala HC Acquits Woman Convicted Of Killing Infant, Cites Mental Healthcare Act

A woman sentenced to life imprisonment for smothering her 15-month-old child in 2016 has been acquitted by the Kerala High Court, which held that she was under severe mental stress and had also attempted to take her own life at the time of the incident.

According to PTI, the ruling turned on the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017, which presumes a person attempting suicide to be under severe stress and protects them from punishment under the IPC. The High Court held that the law, which came into force in 2018 and has previously been found to have retrospective effect, applied to the woman's case and should have been considered by the trial court when proceedings began in 2021.

Setting aside the woman's conviction and life sentence imposed by a Sessions Court in 2023, a bench of Justices Raja Vijayaraghavan V and K V Jayakumar said the Act was in force when her trial commenced and ought to have been taken into account.

PTI reported that the woman had attempted to commit suicide by consuming a substantial quantity of paracetamol tablets, inflicting injuries on her wrists with a sharp object and writing a suicide note before carrying out those acts. The High Court said these circumstances indicated that she was under severe mental stress.

"These circumstances, prima facie, constituted material evidence relevant to the allegation of an attempt to commit suicide. However, for reasons best known to the prosecution, no earnest effort was made to substantiate the charge under section 309 (attempt to commit suicide) IPC," the court said.

"In the above circumstances, we are of the considered view that the provisions of section 115 (presumption of severe stress in case of attempt to commit suicide) of the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017 would squarely apply to the facts of the instant case and the appellant (accused) would be deemed to have been under mental stress and she could not have been punished for any of the offences under the IPC," the bench said in its June 8 judgment.

The prosecution had argued that since the accused was acquitted of the offence under Section 309 of the IPC, the statutory presumption under Section 115 of the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017 could not be invoked in the case.

The High Court rejected the contention, observing that the prosecution itself had not seriously pursued the charge under Section 309 before the trial court.

"We further find that the acquittal of the appellant under section 309 of the IPC was not founded on a positive finding that there was no attempt to commit suicide. On the contrary, the Sessions Judge appears to have proceeded on the concession extended by the public prosecutor and on the premise that the prosecution had failed to establish that the injuries sustained by the accused were sufficient in the ordinary course to cause death.

"Such an approach, in our view, is legally unsustainable," it said.

The bench further held that the Sessions Judge's reasoning that Section 309 was not attracted because the injuries sustained on the wrists and elbows were not sufficient to cause death "cannot be sustained".

"Such an interpretation travels beyond the plain language of the provision and overlooks the distinction between an attempt to commit suicide and the actual likelihood of death resulting from the acts committed".

"The focus of section 309 of the IPC is the attempt and the acts done towards its commission, and not the ultimate gravity or fatal potential of the injuries inflicted," it said.

According to PTI, the High Court allowed the woman's appeal, set aside her conviction and life sentence, and ordered her release.

".. the appellant/accused is set at liberty," the court said.

The woman had challenged the Sessions Court's November 2023 judgment convicting her and sentencing her to life imprisonment for the murder of her child in February 2016.

According to her, she had been subjected to sustained cruelty and harassment by her husband and in-laws from the time of her marriage. She alleged that they accused her of maintaining an illicit relationship with another person and questioned the paternity of the child.

She also claimed that she faced persistent demands for additional dowry and was subjected to both mental and physical cruelty.

It was her case that the cumulative effect of these events caused severe mental trauma and ultimately drove her to attempt suicide on February 16, 2016, by consuming 14 paracetamol tablets.

She stated that after consuming the tablets, she lost consciousness and therefore had no knowledge of how her wrists came to be cut or what had happened to the minor child thereafter.

(With inputs from PTI)