Court case(2001) 9 SCC 618

The appellant's wife Seema committed suicide within a few years of the marriage, leaving behind a letter. The prosecution case was that the husband ill-treated her and, during their quarrels, told her that she was free to go wherever she wished and to do what she liked, which drove her to end her life. The trial court convicted the husband of abetment of suicide (s. 306 IPC) and cruelty (s. 498A IPC), and the High Court upheld the conviction. He appealed to the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court set aside the conviction for abetment of suicide. Instigation is 'to goad, urge forward, provoke, incite or encourage to do an act'. To satisfy the requirement of instigation, though it is not necessary that actual words be used to that effect or that what constitutes instigation be reduced to a formula, there must be a reasonable certainty to incite the consequence. A word uttered in a fit of anger or emotion, without intending the consequences to actually follow, cannot be said to be instigation. The Court also held that s. 113A uses the words 'may presume', so the presumption is discretionary and must be applied in the light of all the circumstances, not mechanically.