Mere harassment is not enough to prove abetment to suicide: SC

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has ruled that mere harassment or actions intended to provoke anger cannot by themselves constitute the crime of abetment to suicide, cautioning against conflating general allegations with the legal threshold for penal charges.

- Utkarsh Anand

A bench of justices Vikram Nath and PB Varale held that Section 306 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), which makes abetment to suicide punishable with up to 10 years in jail, mandates that the prosecution must establish a clear and direct link between the accused's actions and the victim's decision to take their own life. The ruling reaffirms the essential requirement of "mens rea" (intent) to incite or aid the act of suicide, without which a conviction under this provision cannot stand.

"Mere harassment, by itself, is not sufficient to find an accused guilty of abetting suicide. The prosecution must demonstrate an active or direct action by the accused that led the deceased to take their own life.

The element of mens rea cannot simply be presumed or inferred; it must be evident and explicitly discernible," held the bench in a judgment on Tuesday, while acquitting a man and his family accused of abetting the suicide of his wife.