Delhi high court
NEW DELHI: The Delhi high court has observed that merely breaking up with a partner may not amount to instigation for committing suicide under criminal law. The court remarked while granting bail to a man accused of abetting the suicide of his former partner.Justice Manoj Jain passed the order while hearing the bail plea of the accused, whose former partner died by suicide five days after he married another woman. The woman had allegedly hanged herself in October 2025.Granting bail, the court said that for a charge of abetment of suicide under Section 108 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), there must be clear instigation. It observed that such instigation should be of a nature that leaves the deceased with no option but to take the extreme step.The court said it would be established only during trial whether the woman’s suicide was due to provocation or instigation, or whether it was a result of her being “hyper-sensitive,” or for some other reason.In its order dated February 24, the court observed that there was no dying declaration in the case. It also recorded that the couple had been in a relationship for around eight years and that there had been no complaint from the woman during that period. The court further observed that there was a significant time gap between the date when the two stopped communicating and the date of the suicide, news agency PTI reported. “Apparently, it seems to be a case of a broken relationship and quite possibly, the deceased, having come to know that the applicant has got married to someone else, has chosen to finish herself,” the court said.The order added that while broken relationships and heartbreaks are common, a mere breakup does not automatically amount to instigation for the purpose of prosecuting someone for abetment of suicide.According to the woman’s father, his daughter had been pressured by the accused to convert to his religion for marriage. He alleged that she was under such pressure when she died by suicide by hanging herself with a chunni. The accused was arrested in November 2025.However, the court highlighted that statements from the woman’s friends indicated that she was upset but did not mention any issue related to religious conversion. The court also recorded that the accused had stopped speaking to her from February 2025 onwards.In his defence, the accused submitted that the couple had maintained a cordial relationship for eight years. He claimed that the woman’s parents opposed the relationship because they belonged to different religions and that it was her parents who forced her to end it.The court granted the accused bail on a personal bond and a surety bond of Rs 25,000 each. The matter will now proceed to trial, where the evidence will be examined in detail.
