The Mental Healthcare Act, which was enforced in 2018, recently came to the aid of a woman, as the Kerala High Court (HC) junked her conviction and life sentence for smothering her 15-month-old baby and killing him. The court ruled that the woman was reeling under severe mental distress at the time of the incident and was therefore entitled to protection under the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017. 

A division bench of the HC, comprising Justices Raja Vijayaraghavan V and KV Jayakumar, ruled that the woman could not be punished under the Indian Penal Code (IPC), as evidence indicated that she had attempted to end her life too, during the same sequence of events in February 2016. 

Woman was earlier convicted by a Sessions court

Notably, the accused woman had earlier been convicted by a Sessions court in November 2023 and was sentenced to life imprisonment on charges of murdering her child. However, she challenged the verdict before the HC, arguing that years of alleged harassment, cruelty and emotional abuse had pushed her into a state of intense psychological trauma. 

The HC noted that the Mental Healthcare Act, which came into effect in 2018, and has previously been held to have retrospective application by the Kerala HC, was already operational when the trial began in 2021. As such, the Sessions Court should have taken its provisions into account. 

The bench further observed that prior to the incident, the woman had consumed a huge quantity of paracetamol tablets, had inflicted injuries on her wrists with a sharp object and had penned down a suicide note. The court said these actions clearly indicated that she was under extreme mental stress. 

Court trashes prosecution’s argument

The prosecution argued that the statutory presumption of severe stress under Section 115 of the Mental Healthcare Act could not be invoked because the woman had been acquitted of the attempted suicide charge under Section 309 of the IPC. 

However, the HC set aside this contention, saying that the prosecution itself had not seriously pursued the charge during the trial. The judges further took note of the fact that the acquittal under Section 309 was not based on a finding that no suicide attempt had taken place. 

It slammed the reasoning adopted by the Sessions Court and said the focus of Section 309 lies on the attempt to commit suicide and the acts undertaken towards that objective, rather than the fatal nature of the injuries inflicted. 

Woman alleges harassment by husband, in-laws

According to the woman’s defence, she had endured relentless harassment from her husband and in-laws post-marriage. She alleged that she was repeatedly accused of maintaining an illicit relationship with another man, and faced questions regarding her child’s paternity. Moreover, she was subjected to demands for additional dowry. 

She maintained that the cumulative impact of these experiences caused severe mental trauma, ultimately leading her to consume 14 paracetamol tablets on February 16, 2016. She claimed she lost consciousness thereafter and had no recollection of what happened to either herself or her child. 

The HC allowed her appeal and thereafter, quashed the conviction and life sentence, directing authorities that she be released from custody.