Punishing Attempted Suicide - Anachronism of Twentieth Century

"Any act which takes a person further from life and nearer to death has been regarded as felony" was the logic of the medieval Europe. Suicide was punishable in Europe till the end of 18th century. Following the French revolution of 1789, attempted suicide was abolished as an offence in France, and soon other countries of Europe followed suit, and the recent addition to this list is England which in 1961, by Suicide Act, abolished this'crime'. Neither USSR nor USA, the latter barring few states, has any such statute. The punishment for attempted suicide had more material logic, as pointed out by Allan Harding, namely that Crown confiscated the material goods of the person found doing so, and thus the state got richer. Our mythology is also replete with incidences of completed suicide. Maharshi Dadhichi 'gave his bones' to God Indra for the fight against 'Asuras', and Sant Dhyaneshwar committed suicide by entering into 'samadhi'; these could be classified as altruistic suicide, as classified by Emil Durkheim. The instances of 'Johar'by Rajput females following defeat in war of their menfolk, and 'harakiri' in Japan are further examples of this. However while these acts are regarded as laudable, suicide is not looked upon favorably for reasons other than altruism in Hindu religion. Other religions like Islam and Christianity condemn suicide altogether. In the current times, suicide is dealt in Section 309 of Indian Penal Code, which states "Whoever attempts to commit suicide or 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 both". This act takes into account an attempt at suicide or any act towards the commission of such an offence, and the underlying rationale is that the law esteems the life of an individual as not only valuable to him/ her, but also valuable to the State. As the law prevents a person from taking the life of another person, it also does not allow a person to take his own life. The other sections buttressing section 309 are 306 and 304B. Section 306 deals with the abetment of the commission of suicide (but not with abetment of the attempt to commit suicide) while section 304B deals with dowry deaths which states that a person shall be deemed to have caused the death of a woman if that woman dies as a result of burns or injury within seven years of her marriage and if before her death she has been subjected to cruelty or harassment by her in-laws in connection with dowry. A popular view is that the essence of suicide is the intentional self-destruction of life. Hence, courts have often tried to employ the test of intention, and tried to gather information to this extent before passing a judgment. An obdurate example of this is that attempt to suicide is not punishable if the person took the overdose of poison by mistake or under an intoxicated state. Another lacuna in the legislature is the unclear status of those persons who declare their intention to fast unto death or declaration of self-immolation, for any cause. Allahabd High Court (Ram Sunder v State, AIR 1962 Allahabad, 262) has commented on the problem of fast unto death, saying that even if there was such an overt declaration by the person, it is difficult to be sure that he really intended to persevere to the end, and it being a long drawn out process can be interrupted at