What does Section 226 BNS say?
It criminalizes an attempt to commit suicide with the intention of compelling or restraining a public servant from discharging official duties.
Punishment: Simple imprisonment up to one year, or fine, or both, or community service.
Legal Position: At present, there is no public report that Sonam Wangchuk has been booked or arrested under Section 226 BNS. Whether this provision can be invoked would depend on whether investigators can establish all the legal ingredients of the offence, particularly the intention required under the section. A hunger strike by itself does not automatically attract Section 226 BNS; the facts and evidence of each case are decisive.
Relevant judicial precedents
Ram Lila Maidan Incident v. Home Secretary, Union of India (2012) 5 SCC 1
The Supreme Court recognized peaceful protest and fasting as forms of democratic expression under Articles 19 and 21, subject to reasonable restrictions. The judgment does not hold that every hunger strike amounts to an attempt to commit suicide.
Aruna Ramachandra Shanbaug v. Union of India (2011) 4 SCC 454
The Court distinguished between suicide and other situations involving refusal of treatment or end-of-life decisions, emphasizing that intention is crucial.
A hunger strike is not automatically an attempt to commit suicide. To invoke Section 226 BNS, the prosecution would need to establish:
An attempt to commit suicide; and
A specific intention to compel or restrain a public servant from performing official duties.
Whether these ingredients are satisfied in Sonam Wangchuk's case would ultimately depend on the facts, evidence, and judicial interpretation not merely on the fact that he is on a hunger strike.