Quite a bizarre incident had came up into light where Rajasthan high court had acquitted bail to a woman who was charged with horrendous crime of murdering two children in year 1981. The basis on which she got bail was the disease named “ premenstrual stress syndrome” or shortly known as PMS.
Crime detail
Three children were coming back from school when the accused on pretext on showing them the temple pushed them into the well with the intention to kill them all. While one of the child was saved by the witness while other both children were drowned in the water. Later the woman was charged with murder ( section 302 IPC), attempt to murder( section 307 IPC) and unlawful compulsory labour( section 374 IPC ).
Case process
As the case proceeded to high court she was given the benefit of section 84 of Indian penal code which does pardons the offences committed if the convicted person is suffering from any kind of psychological disorders or has been proven unsounded in the court. Thus this lady was labelled with the medical condition of PMS and hence was granted bail on basis of medical ground where bench of justices Mohammad Rafiq and Goverdhan stated that , “ In India there is no such developed law that pertains or deal with cases of pre menstrual syndrome , the obvious reason behind is lack of medical research on such topic”. They further added this syndrome is responsible for insanity and the convicted has full right to plea and prove herself innocent due to consequences and implications of pre menstrual syndrome at the time of crime being committed.
What is Pre menstrual stress syndrome?
It refers to a medical condition where the women go through the phase of mood swings, increased anxiety , feeling cramps in abdomen, bloating , anger and even acute depression few days before the monthly period cycle of women. The cause behind it is the hormonal changes taking place in body due to upcoming mensuration and has categorised as something very painful and quite disturbing time period for women. Though the level of PMS vary person to person. It happens to 2 woman out of 5 as per the research.
Often the issue of PMS is regarded as a kind of myth that doesn’t have a existence and faces denial of any such medical issue by the general masses. Though the symptoms of PMS are certainly not that grave or clear unlike other serious medical disorders but it often results in mood swings and change in behaviour of the woman. This myth of non existence of any such medical issue is result of the stereotype being indifferent to women’s issues and being given less importance to them.
The verdict came after long period of 35 years where the accused was on bail for most of the period. Unfortunately the case had to rely on the medical evidence that were out dated and prejudiced and of course poor research. The major portion of high court judgement revolved around the question and finding answer for the question that “ can PMS be such a serious and grave issue that can lead to insanity of person and make them do such horrifying crime”. A team of three doctors were involved in the case who through the research papers tried to fetch answer for the same. According to the doctors some women during condition of PMS can become aggressive, irritating and violent and even suicidal tendency can also occur. Though court took help of website called UK essays but unfortunately lack of proper medical research couldn’t do true justice to the case.