IPC · Chapter XVI · Of offences affecting the human body
IPC section 305, “Abetment of suicide of child or insane person”, is now BNS section 107 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, in force from 1 July 2024.
Now BNS section 107. It covers abetting the suicide of a “child” or a “person of unsound mind” (IPC: a person under eighteen, an insane person or an idiot). Same punishment.
Indian Penal Code, 1860
If any person under eighteen years of age, any insane person, any delirious person, any idiot, or any person in a state of intoxication, commits suicide, whoever abets the commission of such suicide, shall be punished with death or imprisonment for life, or imprisonment for a term not exceeding ten years, and shall also be liable to fine.
Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023
If any child, any person of unsound mind, any delirious person or any person in a state of intoxication, commits suicide, whoever abets the commission of such suicide, shall be punished with death or imprisonment for life, or imprisonment for a term not exceeding ten years, and shall also be liable to fine.
The texts are India Code’s. The amendment markers and footnotes of the official print are left out, so the old section reads as it stood when it was repealed; State amendments are not shown. The PDFs linked below carry the full history.
The BNS repealed the IPC from 1 July 2024 (section 358(1)). The repeal does not reach back: under section 358(2), penalties and punishments incurred for offences committed against the IPC still stand, and proceedings for them may be started, continued and enforced as if the IPC had not been repealed. An act done before 1 July 2024 is therefore dealt with under the IPC section; an act done on or after that date, under the BNS.
