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Legally Insane: Rethinking India’s Insanity Defence through U.S. Experience
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Pragya Chauhan
Student at National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bengaluru, India
Abstract
This paper explores the insanity defense in criminal law, focusing on India and the United States. In India, the defense under Section 84 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and now the Section 22 of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita (BNS) follows the M’Naghten Rule, which is limited to cognitive incapacity and fails to address the complexities of mental illness. In contrast, the United States incorporates both cognitive and volitional elements of mental disorders through the Model Penal Code, offering a more nuanced approach. The paper argues that India’s reliance on the outdated M’Naghten Rule should be reformed to align with contemporary psychiatric insights. A hypothetical case of Atul, diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, illustrates the shortcomings of the current framework.
Keywords
- Insanity
- M’Naghten Rule
- Volitional Incapacity
- MPC Test
Type
Research Paper
Information
International Journal of Law Management and Humanities, Volume 8, Issue 3, Page 3195 - 3209
DOI: https://doij.org/10.10000/IJLMH.1110203Creative Commons
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution -NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits remixing, adapting, and building upon the work for non-commercial use, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
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