NEW DELHI: Expressing concern over misuse of Section 306 of Indian Penal Code pertaining to abetment to suicide, the Supreme Court on Friday said prosecuting agencies should be sensitised not to “mechanically frame charges” to subject people to a totally untenable prosecution just to “assuage the feelings” of the family of the deceased.
A bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and K V Viswanathan said the apex court had repeatedly clarified the ingredients needed before the provision could be applied but its misuse continued.
“This court has, over the last several decades, repeatedly reiterated the higher threshold, mandated by law for Section 306 IPC (now Section 108 read with Section 45 of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023) to be attracted. They, however, seem to have been followed more in the breach. Section 306 IPC appears to be casually and too readily resorted to by the police. While the persons involved in genuine cases where the threshold is met should not be spared, the provision should not be deployed against individuals only to assuage the immediate feelings of the distraught family of the deceased,” Justice Viswanathan, who penned the verdict for the bench, said. The court said the conduct of the “proposed accused” and the deceased, their interactions and conversations preceding the unfortunate death of the deceased should be approached from a practical point of view and not divorced from day-to-day realities of life.
“Hyperboles employed in exchanges should not, without anything more, be glorified as an instigation to commit suicide. It is time investigating agencies are sensitised to the law laid down by this court under Section 306 so that persons are not subjected to the abuse of process of a totally untenable prosecution. Trial courts also should exercise great caution and circumspection and should not adopt a play it safe syndrome by mechanically framing charges, even if the investigating agencies in a given case have shown utter disregard for the ingredients of Section 306,” the bench said.
Referring to earlier verdicts of the apex court, the bench said the intention of the accused to aid or to instigate or to abet the deceased to commit suicide was a must for attracting Section 306. It also said a word uttered in a fit of anger and emotion without intending the consequences to actually follow could not be said to be instigation.
“In order to bring a case within the purview of Section 306 IPC there must be a case of suicide and in the commission of the said offence, the person who is said to have abetted the commission of suicide must have played an active role by an act of instigation or by doing certain act to facilitate the commission of suicide. Therefore, the act of abetment by the person charged with the said offence must be proved and established by the prosecution before he could be convicted under Section 306 IPC,” it said.
The court passed the order while discharging a person and noted that exchanges between the accused and the deceased were heated but it wasn’t with intent to leave the deceased with no other option but to commit suicide. “This is the conclusion we draw taking a realistic approach, keeping the context and the situation in mind,” it said.
