Court case(1996) 2 SCC 648

Gian Kaur and her husband Harbans Singh were convicted under s. 306 IPC of abetting the suicide of their daughter-in-law Kulwant Kaur. Before the Supreme Court they argued that, since a two-judge bench in P. Rathinam v. Union of India (1994) had struck down s. 309 IPC as violating Article 21 by holding that the right to life includes the right to die, a person who abets another in exercising that right could not be punished under s. 306. The matter was referred to a Constitution Bench.

The Constitution Bench overruled P. Rathinam and upheld both sections. The right to life is a natural right embodied in Article 21, but suicide is an unnatural termination or extinction of life and therefore incompatible and inconsistent with the concept of the right to life. Protection of life does not include extinction of life. The 'right to die with dignity' at the end of natural life, as part of a dignified process of dying, is different from an unnatural death that curtails the natural span of life. Section 306 punishes abetment of suicide as a distinct offence on its own footing and does not depend on the validity of s. 309. The appeals were dismissed.