The Supreme Court has said that no one can be convicted for the offence of abetment to suicide under Section 306 of the Indian Penal Code without a positive act to instigate or aid one to end his or her life.
"To proceed against any person for the offence under Section 306 IPC it requires an active act or direct act which led the deceased to commit suicide, seeing no option and that act must have been intended to push the deceased into such a position that he committed suicide," a bench of Justices R Subhash Reddy and Hrishikesh Roy said.
The top court further pointed out ‘abetment’ involves a mental process of instigating a person or intentionally aiding a person in doing of a thing.
The court explained the legal provision while quashing a criminal case and a non-bailable warrant issued against a girl in Meerut in Uttar Pradesh for allegedly forcing a youth from the Scheduled Caste community to end his life after she refused to marry him.
After considering the facts of the case and material on record, the bench said except the statement, there is no material at all to show that she was maintaining any relation with him.
The court noted, in fact, at an earlier point of time when the deceased was stalking the appellant, she, along with her father, went to the police station to complain about the calls being made by the deceased to her.
This was evident from the statement of a police officer, who deposed that a complaint was received against the deceased for continuously calling the appellant and proposing that she should marry him, otherwise he will die, the court pointed out.
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(Published 19 September 2021, 13:27 IST)
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