A view of premises of the Supreme Court of India, in New Delhi.
| Photo Credit: SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR
The Supreme Court on Friday (January 17, 2025) held that the police must not deploy the criminal provision of ‘abetment of suicide’ casually or to assuage the immediate feelings of the distraught family members of the deceased.
A Bench of Justices K.V. Viswanathan and A.S. Oka said Section 306 (abetment of suicide) of the erstwhile Indian Penal Code or corresponding Section 108 read with Section 45 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 appeared to be “too readily resorted to by the police”.
In order to bring a case of abetment of suicide the police must carefully examine whether the accused had played an active role in instigating or facilitating the death of a person.
To satisfy the requirement of instigation by the accused by his or her act or omission or by a continued course of conduct should have created such circumstances that the deceased was left with no other option except to end their own lives.
“A word uttered in a fit of anger and emotion without intending the consequences to actually follow cannot be said to be instigation,” Justice Viswanathan, who authored the judgment, observed.
The court said it was time investigating agencies were sensitised to the law laid down by the Supreme Court under Section 306 so that persons were not subjected to the abuse of process of a totally untenable prosecution.
“The trial courts must exercise great caution and circumspection and should not adopt a play it safe syndrome by mechanically framing charges,” Justice Viswanathan wrote.
The judgment was dealing with an appeal filed by an accused in a case of abetment of suicide of a young man. The accused was an employee of a financial company who had sought the repayment of a loan. The Madhya Pradesh High Court had rejected his plea to discharge him of the case. The High Court decision was set aside by the apex court.
Published – January 17, 2025 10:48 pm IST