Case Name : Rajesh vs State of Haryana Case Reference: (0000) 0 SCC 00 Case Number: Crl A No 93/2019 Court: Supreme Court Bench: 02 Coram: L Nageswara Rao (Author), MR Shah Date: 18.01.2019
There must be a positive action proximate to the time of occurrence on the part of the accused, which led or compelled the person to commit suicide for sustaining conviction under section 306 IPC on allegation of harassment.
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.
Instigation is to goad, urge forward, provoke, urge forward, provoke, incite or encourage to do “an act”. To satisfy the requirement of “instigation”, though it is not necessary that actual words must be used to that effect or what constitutes “instigation” must necessarily and specifically be suggestive of the consequence. Yet a reasonable certainty to incite the consequence must be capable of being spelt out. Where the accused had, by his acts or omission or by a continued course of conduct, created such circumstances that the deceased was left with no other option except to commit suicide, in which case, an “instigation” may have to be inferred. A word uttered in a fit of anger or emotion without intending the consequences to actually follow, cannot be said to be instigation. To constitute “instigation”, a person who instigates another has to provoke, incite, urge or encourage the doing of an act by the other by “goading” or “urging forward”. The dictionary meaning of the word “goad” is “a thing that stimulates someone into action; provoke to action or reaction” and “to keep irritating or annoying somebody until he reacts”.
Words uttered in a fit of anger or omission without any intention cannot be termed as instigation
– Refer also: Amalendu Pal vs State of West Bengal (2010) 1 SCC 707; Chitresh Kumar Chopra vs State (Govt of NCT of Delhi) (2009) 16 SCC 605; Praveen Pradhan vs State of Uttaranchal (2012) 9 SCC 734; Ramesh Kumar vs State of Chhattisgarh (2001) 9 SCC 618
See also: IPC - Section 107 IPC - Section 306