Madras HC upholds couple’s conviction for killing daughter with mental health condition

The Madras high court said that parental hardship does not justify “extinguishing a child’s life” and no one has the right to take the law into their own hands

The Madras high court has upheld the conviction and life sentence of a couple for poisoning and killing their nine-year-old daughter, who suffered from a mental health condition, saying that parental hardship does not justify “extinguishing a child’s life” and no one has the right to take the law into their own hands.

The court said the couple had a “bounden duty” to care for the child. (Shutterstock)

A bench of Justices GK Ilanthiraiyan and R Poornima (Madurai bench) said on February 13 that the court was not insensitive to the emotional and practical difficulties the couple may have faced in raising a child with disabilities. It added that such hardship could not justify taking the child’s life.

The bench observed that the child had been born to the accused and it was their “bounden duty” to care for her, irrespective of whether she suffered from “mental illness, physical disability, or no disability at all.” It added that permitting parents to eliminate children on the grounds of disability would strike at the very survival and dignity of vulnerable lives.

“If the law permits the parents to eliminate the children born with mental retardation, no such child would survive in this world,” the high court said. The court dismissed the appeals of the couple, challenging their conviction and the life sentence.

On October 1, 2018, the couple took the child to a temple, mixed insecticide in a cool drink, and gave it to her. The child fell ill and was initially admitted to a hospital, where she died five days later. The couple was first booked for an attempt to murder and then murder. A trial court convicted both parents, sentencing them to life imprisonment.

The high court noted the prosecution established a complete chain of circumstances, pointing unerringly to the guilt of the parents. It said that the child was in the couple’s exclusive custody and they brought her to the hospital, where the mother informed doctors that they had mixed the insecticide in a drink and administered it to the child.

The high court reiterated that it sympathised with the parents for the “difficulties they faced in bringing up the child,” but no one had the right to take away another person’s life. “No one has the right to take the law into their own hands and extinguish the life of another person. Even today, many parents make immense sacrifices and even lay down their lives for children born with disabilities. Therefore, the trial court rightly convicted the accused...,” the high court said.