The Supreme Court held on Thursday that a breakup or refusal to marry does not automatically amount to abetment to suicide. The bench said, “People react differently to situations and if a breakup ends up with suicide, it cannot always be termed an abetment to suicide,” while quashing criminal proceedings.

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A breakup or refusal to marry, even if followed by suicide, cannot by itself be treated as abetment to suicide, the Supreme Court has held while quashing criminal proceedings against six accused on Thursday.

A bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and K Vinod Chandran, during the hearing said there must be material showing instigation or intentional aid for a person to be held liable for abetment to suicide, as reported by Livelaw.

The apex court's observations came in a case that involved a woman who died by suicide after her live-in partner allegedly refused to marry her. The prosecution had accused six people, including the man, his parents, sister, a friend and his sister’s proposed bridegroom, of abetting her suicide.

According to LiveLaw, the woman and the first accused had been in a consensual relationship and had lived together for around three months at his house.

The prosecution alleged that he subsequently refused to marry her and that the other accused had influenced him against the marriage.

The FIR was registered on the basis of a statement given by the woman's sister following her death.

What the Supreme Court said

The court found that there was no material to establish that any of the accused had instigated the woman to take her own life.

“People react differently to situations and if a breakup ends up with suicide, it cannot always be termed an abetment to suicide,” the bench observed, as reported by LiveLaw.

The court also held that the alleged refusal to marry could not, in the circumstances of the case, be said to have been intended to drive the woman to suicide. Nor could the accused be presumed to have known that their conduct would result in her taking such an extreme step.

The bench said that even if the allegations in the prosecution case were accepted at their highest, they essentially showed a refusal to marry followed by the woman's suicide. That, by itself, was insufficient to constitute the offence of abetment to suicide.

The Supreme Court subsequently quashed the criminal proceedings against all six accused.