The Supreme Court has ruled that a person cannot be convicted for abetting the suicide of another person unless the accused had instigated the victim to take the extreme step and such death had occurred in “close proximity” of the alleged instigation.

“The question is whether the appellants instigated the deceased to commit suicide. To attract the first clause, there must be instigation in some form on the part of the accused to cause the deceased to commit suicide. Hence, the accused must have mens rea (guilty intention) to instigate the deceased to commit suicide.

"The act of instigation must be of such intensity that it is intended to push the deceased to such a position under which he or she has no choice but to commit suicide,” a bench of Justices Abhay S. Oka and Pankaj Mithal said. “Such instigation must be in close proximity to the act of committing suicide.”

The apex court passed the ruling while allowing the appeal filed by Mohit Singhal and another convict challenging the refusal of Uttarakhand High Court to quash the case registered against them under IPC Section 306(abetment to suicide) registered against them by the wife of the deceased, Ashok Kumar.

The wife of the deceased had alleged that her husband committed suicide after leaving behind a note in which he had accused the appellants of abusing and beating him and his wife, besides threatening to kidnap their daughter over delay in payment of a loan taken by the family from the accused.

Justice Oka said: "It is impossible to conclude that the appellants instigated the deceased to commit suicide by demanding the payment of the amount borrowed by the third respondent (wife) from her husband by using abusive language and by assaulting him by a belt for that purpose.”