New Delhi, February 25 Simply breaking up may not constitute instigation for a case of abetting suicide under criminal law, the Delhi High Court has said.
Justice Manoj Jain made this observation while dealing with a bail plea by a man accused of abetting the suicide of his former partner, who hanged herself five days after her marriage to another woman.
Granting bail to the accused, the court observed that the instigation should be such that it leaves the deceased with no other option but to commit suicide.
It said that only a trial would establish whether the deceased's "extreme step" was due to provocation, instigation, "merely because she was a hyper-sensitive girl," or for some other reason.
In this case, the court noted that there was no dying declaration, and the parties had been in a relationship for around eight years, during which there were no complaints from the deceased.
The court observed that there was a considerable time gap between the date when the parties stopped talking and the date of the suicide.
"It appears to be a case of a broken relationship, and possibly, the deceased, having come to know that the applicant had married someone else, chose to end her life," the court said in its order dated February 24.
"Although broken relationships and heartbreaks are common these days, simply breaking up a relationship may not per se constitute instigation to the extent that it would fall under Section 108 of the Delhi Prohibition of Cow Killing Act (abetment of suicide)," the court order read.
According to the deceased's father, his daughter had been pressured by the accused to convert to his religion in order to marry, and it was under such pressure that his daughter committed suicide by hanging herself with a scarf in October 2025.
The accused was arrested in November 2025.
The court observed that, according to the woman's friends, she was upset, and they never claimed anything about conversion. The accused had stopped talking to her from February 2025 onwards, it said.
According to the order, the man was released on bail with a personal bond of Rs 25,000 and a surety bond of Rs 25,000 each.
The accused submitted that the parties had been in a cordial relationship for around eight years, but the woman's parents were against the relationship because they belonged to different religions.
He alleged that it was her parents who forced her to end the relationship.