Read Time: 07 minutes

Synopsis

The Delhi High Court recently ruled that harsh decisions made by an employer in the course of employment cannot be considered actions amounting to incitement or abetment of an employee's suicide without the requisite mens rea (Criminal intent).

The Bench Presided over by Justice Amit Sharma while setting aside summons issued by the trial court in the present case said, "This Court is of the considered opinion that person holding a certain post, whether in private sector or public sector, in the course of duties have to take certain decisions which at time can be harsh causing hardship to an employee. The same cannot, in the absence of the requisite mens rea, be termed as an action which would amount to incitement/abetment in terms of Section 306 of the IPC."

Notably, the Learned Metropolitan Magistrate (MM) at Tis Hazari Courts had issued summons to Dr GK Arora, the former principal of the BR Ambedkar College, Delhi University, and a senior assistant named Ravinder Singh under Section 306 of the Indian Penal Code(IPC).

These summons were issued in the case of Pavitra Bhardwaj, who had set herself on fire in front of the Delhi Secretariat and later succumbed to her injuries. In her suicide note, she had accused the principal and several others at Bhim Rao Ambedkar College (BRAC)of mentally and physically harassing her since 2009-10.

"I was disturbed my principal had made my life hell whose name is G.K. Arora and Ravinder Singh Senior UDC wanted to make physical relations with me but I did not want to make any relation with them. They harassed me because I had made complaints of torture against them," her dying declaration stated.

However, the court pointed out that the deceased died by suicide after almost 1 year and 6 months of her termination from her services. The court further added that enquiries into her death were conducted by the National Commission for Women and Shri B.L. Garg Commission, which ultimately turned out to be in the favour of the petitioners.

Noting that all complaints had been closed after appropriate enquiries, the court highlighted that the tone and tenor of the suicide note reflect that the deceased blamed the system for not coming to her support.

"Insofar as Section 294(b) IPC is concerned, we could not find a single word in the FIR or even in the so-called suicide note. Insofar as Section 306 IPC is concerned, even at the cost of repetition, we may say that merely because a person had a grudge against his superior officer and committed suicide on account of that grudge, even honestly feeling that he was wronged, it would still not be a proper allegation for basing the charge under Section 306 IPC. It will still fall short of a proper allegation. It would have to be objectively seen whether the allegations made could reasonably be viewed as proper allegations against the appellant accused to the effect that he had intended or engineered the suicide of the person concerned by his acts, words, etc. When we put the present FIR on this test, it falls short," the court added.

Accordingly, the court set aside the summoning order by the trial court and allowed the present petition.

Case Title: DR. G K ARORA V STATE & ANR