The defence of insanity is mainly used in criminal prosecutions. For an offence to be called as a crime two essentials have to be satisfied i.e. actus rea and mens rea. “Actus Rea” is the physical act and “mens rea” is the mental intention to do the crime, only if both are present it constitutes a crime. Therefore the “Insanity Defence” is used by the defendants to get away with the “mens rea” part of a crime by assuming that the person who committed the crime was having a mental illness or was mentally incapable of understanding their actions during the time of commission of the crime or was of an unsound mind. The defence of insanity in the Indian judicial system is stated under the section 84 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), 1860. It is given under the heading “Act of a person of unsound mind” and this can be used as a defence only if three conditions are fulfilled, they are:
- That the person was incapable of knowing the nature of the act,
- That the person was incapable of knowing that his/her act was wrong,
- That the person did not know that what he/she was doing is contrary to law.
There are two legal maxims which make us understand the fundamental principle stated in section 84 of the IPC and they are:
Actus non facit reum nisi mens sit rea which means that nothing is a wrong unless it is done with a guilty intention.
Furiosi nulla voluntas est which means that a person with mental illness has no free will and therefore they can do no wrong.
There is no liability formed on the person who is said to have no “mens rea” or a guilty intention, hence they are declared innocent, but this is not as easy as it seems to prove it. Cause one may prove medical insanity but proving legal insanity is quite difficult. Know you may ask what is the difference between the both, in simple terms medical insanity is simply a person suffering from a mental illness so it’s more of a psychological aspect but legal insanity is when a person is very mentally ill that he /she could not understand their actions during commission of the crime, so if the person was knowing what they were doing during the crime but was mentally ill in other times still he will charged for the crime and be held liable (Anosognosia). There are different types of insanity they are permanent insanity and temporary insanity. In the first one they are considered insane at all times but in the second one the person is not always insane; they are sane at times. The “burden of proof” always lies on the accused and they have to prove beyond reasonable doubt that during commission of the crime they were “legally insane”.
The psychiatrist opinion also plays an important role in the decision given by the court. Hence, punishing a person who is not responsible is a violation of basic human rights under the Constitution of India. There is a saying that “Rather leave the crime of the guilty unpunished than condemn the innocent.” Some positive effects of this defence are death penalty is not given to the insane person as they cannot understand the gravity of the situation, this acts as a relief to the mentally challenged people as this defence moreover save their life as they are considered to have a child’s state of mind and punishing a child is against our ethics and morals.
On the other side is the defence of insanity acting like a loophole in law or being misused by the “advantaged” people, say people who are really wealthy enough to bribe the authorities in getting a fake medical certificate or getting false proof, or people who take the help of people who have big backgrounds like politicians or celebrities and so on, or if the lawyer is very intelligent enough to prove it even though the accused is of sane mind. Anything can happen in the present world of misbelief and in the “nothing is impossible in this world”. Seeing the loopholes of this defences it is abolished in some jurisdictions.Some other negative aspects of this defence are that it is very difficult to prove, and it can lead to high and increased trial costs. The insanity defence is a loophole for criminals as it is one of the popular used weapons which is used a defence to escape from any crime, as it is almost next to impossible to prove the mental state of the person during the commission of the crime.
At a conclusion my opinion is is that “NO CRIMINAL SHALL BE LEFT UNPUNISHED”, to achieve that we have to make our laws stricter and more specific and make sure such matters are governed in a very clean and transparent manner without scope for misuse or misleading the eyes of law. There is always good and bad to everything, but we should be capable and efficient enough to make the bad perspects good.
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