Act of filing cases cannot make wife liable for abetting husband's suicide: Allahabad HC

Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh: The Allahabad High Court has observed that a wife and her relatives cannot be held liable for abetting her husband's suicide merely because they filed cases against him over a matrimonial dispute.

Justice Sameer Jain, allowing the petition of wife Megha Kirti, said that the mere act of lodging cases alone, even if they are alleged to be false, does not establish the requisite mens rea (guilty intention) needed to constitute the offence under Section 306 (abetment to commit suicide) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

The court quashed criminal proceedings against the wife and her family members, noting that there was nothing on record to show that they had any mens rea to abet the husband to die by suicide.

The court also noted that even if the husband was under distress due to the "false" cases, it cannot be said that he did not have any other option except to die by suicide.

The wife and her family members filed this petition seeking to quash a charge sheet and pending proceedings against them before the chief judicial magistrate, Saharanpur, in connection with the suicide of the husband.

The father of the deceased lodged an FIR in August 2022, alleging that Kirti was pressuring his son for a share in the ancestral property and when he refused, she and her close relatives allegedly harassed him and lodged false cases.

It was further claimed that the deceased had to quit his job, and he lived in extreme distress due to the pending case. Ultimately, in July 2022, he died by suicide by causing a firearm injury to himself.

During the investigation, the police recovered a purported suicide note which detailed that due to the torture of the wife and her family members, the deceased was in great distress as he had been facing false cases lodged by them, and hence, he was compelled to die by suicide.

After the investigation, a charge sheet was filed against them under Section 306 IPC, upon which the court concerned took cognisance and issued summons to the applicants.

The wife and her family members moved the high court challenging the case proceedings.

The counsel for the wife argued that if the husband dies by suicide due to the court cases lodged by his wife, even then the wife and her family members cannot be held liable. It was also contended that to prove offence u/s 306 IPC, it must be shown that the person was left no option except to die by suicide.

However, it was submitted that, in the present case, there was no material to prove the same.

The state and the counsel for the informant argued that the applicants had harassed the deceased in such a manner that he was left with no other option except to die by suicide.

Justice Jain, in his judgment passed on April 6, observed that while the deceased was indeed facing cases lodged by his wife and their matrimonial relationship was not cordial, prima facie, it cannot be said that suicide was in consequence of cases lodged by the applicants.