Kerala HC Acquits Woman Sentenced For Killing Her Baby

The Mental Healthcare Act, which protects a person from punishment under the IPC if they attempt suicide, has come to the aid of a woman convicted and sentenced to life for smothering her 15-month-old infant in 2016, as she had also tried to take her own life at that time. 

Referring to the provisions of the Act, the Kerala High Court acquitted the woman convicted by a Sessions Court in 2023, saying that she was under severe mental stress and had attempted suicide when the incident had occurred.

The Act, which came into effect in 2018, was earlier



held by the Kerala High Court to have retrospective effect. In the present case, the High Court said that the Act was in force when the trial began in 2021 and therefore, the Sessions Court ought to have taken it into account. 

A bench of justices Raja Vijayaraghavan V and K V Jayakumar said that the woman had attempted to commit suicide by consuming a substantial quantity of paracetamol tablets, inflicted injuries on her wrists with a sharp object and also wrote a suicide note before committing these acts, indicating that she was under severe mental stress.