Mere Quarrels Or Fights In Marriage Or Family Not Sufficient For Abetment Of Suicide: Delhi High Court

The Delhi High Court has held that mere quarrels or fights in a marriage or family do not amount to the offence of abetment of suicide.

Justice Ravinder Dudeja observed that abetment is constituted by instigating a person to commit an offence or engaging in a conspiracy to commit it or intentionally aiding a person to commit it.

Mere harassment may not be enough for abetment. There must be active instigation, the Court said.

It added that a person, who is emotionally or mentally vulnerable due to depression and other psychiatric problems, is a big factor to be considered in a case of abetment of suicide.

“In such cases, higher proof of instigation is required. Every case of suicide does not amount to abetment and therefore the Court has to see whether the conduct of the accused was such that a normal person, not merely a hyper sensitive one, would have been driven to suicide,” the Court said. It added that the standard in such cases is what a reasonable person would do and not someone who is unusually sensitive and unstable.

The Court made the observations while granting anticipatory bail to a man and a wife accusing of being responsible for the death of the husband who committed suicide by consuming Celphos tablets.

The wife had lodged an FIR against the husband accusing him of committing unnatural sex upon her. On coming to know about the same, the husband committed suicide. The deceased had threatened the petitioners to commit suicide and implicate them by writing a suicide note.

The bail pleas were opposed by the prosecution submitting that before the death, the deceased circulated a WhatsApp message in which he clearly stated that he was tortured and harassed by the petitioners and they gave him poison to consume.

On the other hand, the Petitioners placed on record plethora of medical records to show that deceased was suffering from depression, had a clinical history of abnormal behavior, had suicidal tendency and bipolar disorder.

The Court noted that the Petitioners placed on record the transcripts of the recorded conversations, which, prima facie, showed that deceased used highly abusive words against them. It further noted that deceased had threatened to implicate the petitioners by leaving suicide note and observed that merely because some persons are named in the suicide note, they cannot be presumed to be guilty.

Title: ANSH JINDAL v. State and other connected matter

Citation: 2025 LiveLaw (Del) 494

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