JUDGMENT : 1. Mt. Mulia, a woman about 30 years of age of the Kumhar or potter caste attempted to take her own life by throwing herself down a well. She has been rightly convicted of an offence under S. 309, I.P.C. It so happened that this unfortunate woman was at that moment in an advanced stage of pregnancy. Indeed the excuse she herself put forward for her rash and criminal act was that she had been driven almost frantic by the pains of prolonged labour. She was actually delivered of a child while in the well and it is not surprising that the unfortunate infant was born dead. 2. On this state of facts the learned Sessions Judge has argued himself into a conviction that Mt. Mulia committed a further offence namely that of attempting to cause herself to miscarry and he: has convicted her under S. 312, read with S. 511, I.P.C. I find it quite impossible to understand how the act in question can be brought within the purview of these sections. If any further offence was in fact committed by the woman, beyond that of attempting to take her own life, it would apparently be one falling within the purview of S. 315, I.P.C.; but the learned Sessions Judge correctly found that the provisions of this section could not be applied. He brings it under S. 312 by reason of the definition of the word “voluntarily” in an earlier portion of the same Code. It is sufficiently obvious that so far as concerns the fact that the child was not born alive, there was no question of any attempt. The result of the woman's throwing herself into the well was that the child was born dead. I am quite satisfied that the idea of possible consequences to the child was simply not present at all to the woman's mind when she committed the rash and criminal act for which she has been rightly convicted. I set aside the conviction and the sentence under S. 312 read with S. 511, I.P.C. On her conviction under S. 309 the woman was sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for three months and this sentence she has presumably served. Orders will therefore be issued for her immediate release.