The Bombay High Court quashed an abetment-to-suicide case against a woman, holding that marital discord alone does not show that a spouse encouraged the other to take their life. The Nagpur bench said such disagreements are common and cannot justify abetment allegations.
The Bombay High Court quashed an abetment-to-suicide case against a woman, saying that marital discord alone does not establish that a spouse encouraged the other to take their own life.
The Nagpur bench observed that disagreements between partners are common and, by themselves, cannot be grounds to accuse one spouse of abetting the other’s suicide.
The court emphasized that there must be proof of instigation or direct incitement by the accused for such a charge to stick.
The bench said,
“In such cases, it cannot be held that due to abetment from one partner the other committed suicide,”
A single-judge bench of Justice Urmila Joshi Phalke allowed the 49-year-old teacher’s petition to quash the complaint lodged by Amravati police in 2019.
The court noted that both spouses had accused each other of mistreatment and abuse, and at best the woman could be said to have contributed to the husband’s frustration.
The bench added that ordinary domestic disputes, without proof of guilty intent, cannot ordinarily be treated as the cause of a death.
To establish abetment, the prosecution must show that the accused played an active role in the suicide, encouraged the victim to end their life, or conspired with others to bring it about. The High Court reiterated that there must be instigation or direct incitement from the accused to the victim to commit suicide.
The court remarked,
“In order to attract the offence of abetment, there must be mens rea (intention). Without knowledge or intention, there cannot be any abetment,”
The bench also observed that angry remarks between spouses do not automatically amount to abetment.
The man’s suicide note did not indicate that he had been driven to kill himself by the woman; on the contrary, it expressly stated that “no one is to be held responsible for his death.”
The couple, married in December 1996, had a history of mutual allegations.
The man and his parents accused the woman of abusing and assaulting them, of threatening to commit suicide to implicate them, of having an extramarital relationship, and of leaving the marital home for days without informing anyone. After the man took his life in November 2019, his parents filed the abetment complaint.
The woman countered that she too had been physically abused and mistreated by her husband and his parents.
The court concluded that the record showed marital discord and accusations of ill-treatment, but did not establish the intentional conduct required for an abetment charge.
