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Synopsis

The Supreme Court today refused to entertain a PIL seeking guidelines to deal with suicide by married males owing to domestic violence. 

A division bench of Justices Surya Kant and Dipankar Datta observed that criminal law takes care of everyone and there was no question of misplaced sympathy for anyone. 

Court was further of the view that the plea filed by Advocate Mahesh Kumar Tiwari, painted a one-sided picture.

"Nobody wants to commit suicide, it depends on facts of every case. Criminal law takes care, people are not remediless", the division bench added.

The instant plea additionally sought for a direction to form a 'National Commission for Men'.

Citing the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data published in 2021 which claimed that 1,64,033 people died by suicide, the petition submitted that 81,063 people among those who ended their lives were married men, while 28,680 were married women.

As per the plea, relying on the NCRB data, the Supreme Court was told that 4.8% of the men who died by suicide in 2021, ended their life due to marriage-related issues.

In this light, it was further sought that Law Commission of India should carry out research on the issue of such suicides of married men and submit a report in order to constitute a forum like National Commission for Men.

A prayer was also made to direct the Ministry of Home Affairs to issue proper guidelines to the police authority/ Station House Officer of every Police Station to accept/ receive the complaint of victims of domestic violence or those who are under stress due to family problems and marriage related issues and refer the same to the State Human Right Commission for its proper disposal, till a proper legislation is enacted by the Government of India.

Case Title: MAHESH KUMAR TIWARI vs. UNION OF INDIA AND ANR.