On Monday, the Supreme Court reaffirmed that a conviction for abetment of suicide under Section 306 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 requires a conscious and deliberate intention on the part of the accused to drive another person to the act of ending their life. Mere allegations of harassment, however severe, do not by themselves constitute the necessary mental element of instigation.
A Bench comprising CJI B.R. Gavai and Justice K. Vinod Chandran upheld the Bombay High Court’s order of quashing criminal proceedings arising from the suicide of Mohan Delkar, a seven-time Member of Parliament from Dadra and Nagar Haveli, who died by suicide. Delkar had left behind a detailed note naming administrative and police officials whom he accused of attempting to defame, harass, and politically weaken him.
The Bench emphasised that courts cannot rely solely on the contents of a suicide note to sustain criminal liability in the absence of additional material that evidences mens rea. It noted that
"True, a person unable to bear the pressure or withstand a humiliation or unable to oppose, may succumb to the extreme act of ending his own life, in desperation; but that would not necessarily mean that the alleged perpetrator had an intention to lead the victim to eventual death by his own or her own hands."
The Court expressed concern that investigative authorities continue to misconstrue the legal contours of abetment despite repeated judicial pronouncements. It criticised the routine registration of FIRs and arrests in such cases "for reason of abject ignorance or on tainted instigation or at times deliberate design," without proper inquiry into the presence of the accused’s intent.
While clarifying the legal threshold, the Court held that instigation must be discerned from the "conscious acts or words and the attendant circumstances" which could reasonably be said to drive a person towards suicide. The Bench further stated that the decisive test lies in whether the accused harboured the thought of pushing the victim towards such an end.
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