Supreme Court to hear plea of person against prosecution for suicide bid

Supreme Court on Thursday deferred hearing final arguments on behalf of a person, who underwent sex change surgery to become male, against his prosecution for attempting to commit suicide. "Fix the case for hearing on a non-miscellaneous day," a bench comprising justices V Gopala Gowda and R Banumathi said.

The litigant, now a male, had moved the apex court in 2013 against a decision of the Punjab and Haryana High Court refusing to quash the FIR lodged against her under section 309 (attempt to commit suicide) under the IPC.
Senior advocate Anand Grover, appearing for the litigant, said the offence of attempt to commit suicide has been abolished in several states and Punjab should also make its stand clear on it.

Earlier, the court had allowed the plea that the name of the litigant should not be used in records to save her/him from embarrassment as the society has not evolved to an extent where gender reassignment surgery becomes acceptable.

"For the reasons stated in the application for direction, the application is granted absolute in terms of prayer...The petitioner shall substitute the name of the petitioner as Ms. 'X'...," the court had said.