Marital discords not ground for abetment of suicide charge on spouses: Bombay High Court

The court held that matrimonial discord is common in domestic life and suicide cannot be attributed to any of the spouses merely because there was a matrimonial dispute.

Mumbai: A spouse cannot be accused of abetting the suicide of his or her partner merely because there was marital discord between the two, the Bombay High Court has said while quashing a case lodged against a woman for abetting the suicide of her husband.

The HC's Nagpur bench, in its order passed last week, held that matrimonial discord is common in domestic life and suicide cannot be attributed to any of the spouses merely because there was a matrimonial dispute. It added that there has to be instigation or direct incitement from the accused to the victim to end life.

"In such cases, it cannot be held that due to abetment from one partner the other committed suicide," the court said.

The bench allowed the plea filed by a 49-year-old woman, a teacher by profession, seeking to quash the abetment of suicide case filed against her in 2019 by the Amravati police.

A single bench of Justice Urmila Joshi Phalke said that in the present case both the husband and the wife had levelled allegations of ill-treatment and abuse against each other and hence at the most it can be said that the woman might have been the reason for frustration of the man.

"Such types of discord and differences are common in domestic life and until and unless some guilty intentions are there, it is ordinarily not possible to show that the woman was responsible for the death of her husband," the HC said.

In its order, the court noted that to charge a person for the offence of abetment, the prosecution must prove that the accused played a role in the suicide or had encouraged the individual to take their life or conspired with others to ensure that the person committed suicide.

There has to be instigation or direct incitement from the accused to the victim to commit suicide, the HC said.

"In order to attract the offence of abetment, there must be mens rea (intention). Without knowledge or intention, there cannot be any abetment," the court remarked.

The bench said words uttered by any of the spouses in a fit of anger would not be sufficient to constitute the offence of abetment.

The suicide note left behind by the man nowhere reflects that he committed suicide due to the abetment by the woman, the court said, adding it in fact clearly states that no one is to be held responsible for his death.

The couple got married in December 1996. The man and his parents alleged that the woman used to abuse them and also used to assault the man. She used to also threaten to commit suicide and implicate them in false cases.

The in-laws also alleged that she was in an illicit relationship with another man and used to leave the matrimonial house for several days without informing.

In November 2019, the man under pressure committed suicide after which his parents lodged a case against the woman for abetment. The woman claimed that she too was physically assaulted and abused by her husband and his parents during the marriage.

The court noted that in the present case there was marital discord between the couple and allegations of ill-treatment.