Medically Recognised but Legally Invisible: Women-Centric Hormonal Mental Disorders as a Criminal Defence under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023

Abstract

This chapter examines the legal invisibility of women-centric hormonal mental disorders under Section 22 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023. Although modern psychiatry recognises conditions such as Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD), postpartum psychosis, and catamenial psychosis as serious mental health disorders capable of impairing cognition, judgment, and behavioural control, Indian criminal law continues to apply narrow insanity standards based largely on the traditional cognitive model established in M'Naghten's Case. Consequently, hormonally induced psychiatric conditions affecting women often remain medically recognised but legally unacknowledged. The chapter analyses the relationship between hormonal mental disorders and criminal responsibility through doctrinal, comparative, and feminist perspectives. It argues that the present legal framework inadequately accommodates temporary or partial psychiatric incapacity and fails to address gender-specific psychological realities linked with menstruation, childbirth, and reproductive health. Comparative jurisprudence from the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States, Australia, and New Zealand demonstrates evolving judicial approaches toward diminished responsibility, postpartum psychiatric disorders, and hormonally linked mental incapacity. The chapter further highlights the gender bias embedded within traditional insanity jurisprudence and examines the issue through constitutional principles of equality, dignity, and mental healthcare under Articles 14, 15, and 21 of the Constitution of India. It concludes by proposing reforms such as statutory recognition of hormonal psychiatric disorders, introduction of diminished responsibility, psychiatric evaluation mechanisms, and greater integration between criminal law and mental healthcare jurisprudence.

Keywords: Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023; Section 22 BNS; Women-Centric Hormonal Mental Disorders; Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD); Postpartum Psychosis; Legal Insanity; Criminal Responsibility; Diminished Responsibility; Feminist Criminal Jurisprudence; Mental Health and Criminal Law; Gender Justice; Hormonal Psychosis.