legal insanity
legal insanity
Prakash Nayi @ Sen Vs. State of Goa | CRA 2010 of 2010 | 12 January 2023
supreme court of india
Indian Penal Code, 1860; Section 84. The existence of unsound mind is an essential condition for the applicability of the provision. Mere unsound mind in itself would not be sufficient, and it must be to the extent of not knowing the nature of the act – mere medical insanity cannot be said to mean unsoundness of mind. There may be a case where a person suffering from medical insanity would have committed an act, however, the test is one of legal insanity to attract the mandate of section 84 IPC. There must be some incapacity of a person to know the nature of the act or to consider it to be wrong or contrary to law. (Para 4-7)