Desk Correspondent , Mumbai – The Bombay High Court has quashed an abetment of suicide case against a 49-year-old woman teacher, ruling that common marital discords cannot lead to accusing one partner of the offence without clear evidence of instigation or guilty intention. Justice Urmila Joshi Phalke allowed the woman’s petition last week, observing that there must be men’s ground for charges under Section 306 of the Indian Penal Code to apply. The case stemmed from her husband’s suicide in November 2019 in Amravati.

The court noted that both spouses had levelled allegations of ill-treatment and abuse against each other. “Matrimonial discord is common in domestic life and suicide cannot be attributed to any of the spouses merely because there was a matrimonial dispute,” the bench stated. It emphasised that words said under a fit of rage or routine differences do not constitute abetment unless there is direct incitement. The husband’s suicide note explicitly stated that no one should be held responsible for his death.

The couple had married in December 1996. The woman’s in-laws had accused her of abusing them, assaulting her husband, and having an extramarital affair, leading to the FIR filed by Amravati police in 2019. The woman had countered with claims of being assaulted by her husband and in-laws. The court found no evidence of instigation by the woman and quashed the proceedings to prevent misuse of such laws in ordinary matrimonial disputes.