Whether an accused be convicted under section 306 merely of his implied act which led to the commission of suicide?

Gangula Mohan Reddy vs State of Andhra Pradesh (2010) (1) SCALE 1

Held: Abetment involves a mental process of instigating a person or intentionally aiding a person in doing of a thing. Without a positive act on the part of the accused to instigate or aid in committing suicide, conviction cannot be sustained.

The intention of the legislature and the ratio of the cases decided by this court clear that in order to convict a person under section 306 IPC there has to be clear mens rea to commit the offence. It also requires an active or direct act which led the deceased to commit suicide seeing no option and this must have been intended to push the deceased into such a position that he committed suicide.

In the light of the provision of law and well-settled legal provisions crystallized by a series of judgements of this Court, the conviction of the appellant cannot be sustained. Consequently, the appeal filed by the appellant allowed and disposed of.