Medical insanity can’t be ground for acquittal, says Parliament panel

NEW DELHI: Mere medical insanity cannot be the ground for the acquittal of an accused and legal insanity is required to be proved for claiming a valid defence, a parliamentary panel observed.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs, headed by BJP MP Brijlal, recommended that the word “mental illness” in the proposed new criminal law may be changed to “unsound mind” as mental illness is too wide as it includes even mood swings or voluntary intoxication within its ambit.

The observations have been made by the panel in its report prepared after examining the proposed three new criminal laws. The proposed laws are Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS-2023), Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS-2023), and the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam (BSA-2023). The three bills, which were introduced in the Lok Sabha on August 11, will replace the Indian Penal Code, 1860, Criminal Procedure Act, 1898, and the Indian Evidence Act, 1872.

The panel’s reports were submitted to the Rajya Sabha on Friday.

Observing that the term, ‘unsound mind,’ carried a restricted interpretation in the Indian Penal Code and was available as a defence for the accused, the panel noted,

“The committee is of the view that mere medical insanity cannot be a ground for acquittal of the accused and legal insanity is required to be proved for claiming a valid defence.”

The committee is of the view that such a frivolous claim, if recognised as a valid defence, will spell doom for the prosecution as all defences will be claimed under this provision, thereby defeating the very purpose of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.

It said in the present system, the accused can simply show that he was under the influence of alcohol or drugs during the time of the commission of a crime and he cannot be prosecuted even if he has committed the crime without intoxication and avoid prosecution.