euthanasia

 Dear Vignesh, have these:

1. C.A. Thomas Master v. Union of India and another, O.P.Nos.11596 and 21470 of 1998 (Kerala High Court).

2. Maruti Sripati Dubal v. State of Maharastra, 1987 Cr.L.J. 743 (Bom).

3. R.Rathinam v. Union of India, 1994 Cr.L.J. 1605 (SC).

4. Gian Kaur v. State of Punjab, AIR 1996 SC 946.

The last three cases does not directly deal with mercy killing but while dealing Sec.309 of the IPC, they discuss a lot on euthanasia. R.Rathinam case is very important case in which Justice Hansaria, in his beautiful judgment writes about the history of euthanasia and lot many other things. You will really enjoy reading this judgment. In this case, the Court held that the Sec.309 of IPC is unconstitutional.

However, this case was overruled in Gian Kaur case.

Thereafter lot of petitions were filed in various High Courts, but the courts have ruled that unless there is a specific law allowing euthansia, the Courts cannot permit any person to end his own life. This was also the view taken by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in Gain Kaur case. The Court held: “Euthanasia may fall within the concept of right to life with human dignity up to the end of natural life. This may include the right of a dying man to die with dignity when his life is webbing out.” But the Court refused to uphold this right in the absence of any specific law providing for that.

With Regards,

VK

So nice of you Vinodkumar ji. The rulings are very important.

thank you very much sir........ it was indeed very helpful.

Could I please have a copy of the full judgement on Niketa Mehta case upon the issue of abortion decided by the Bombay High Court on 4th August 2008. My email address is ghazi@lawyer.com. Thanks in advance!