Shashwati Chowdhury
Published on: July 7, 2022 at 16:40 IST
According to the Gujarat High Court, scolding an employee to maintain discipline at work would not amount to the employer abetting suicide of the individual and would not be a violation of Section 306 of the IPC.
In addition, Justice Nirzar Desal ruled that if a bonafide act of maintaining discipline in the workplace is recorded as an offence, then, it would pose a threat to all employers under Section 306 IPC. It observed.
In the present case, the Petitioners were the employer of the complainant’s daughter. Days after being admonished for attending the event hosted by their client during office hours, the daughter of the complainant committed suicide. They sought the FIR for offences of Sections 306 and 114 of the IPC be quashed.
The complainant alleged that because the applicants had harassed his daughter, she committed suicide by hanging herself. It was said that the Applicants had threatened the employee with legal action and a licence suspension for attending a function during office hours and scolded her for doing so.
The applicants argued that the ingredients of Section 306 were not met in the current case by citing Vaijnath Knodiba Khandke v. State of Maharasthra and another. Additionally, if the employer intended to maintain discipline the office, It wouldn’t qualify as abetment or instigation in committing suicide.
Justice Desai concluded by sayin, “If an employer on finding the employee breaching the discipline of office asks the employee that legal action would be taken against concerned employee and if after few days, the concerned employee commits suicide, it cannot be said that the threat to take legal action was given with a criminal intent to instigate the employee to commit suicide”
The Bench believed that if the applicants had been instrumental in suicide the deceased person in taking his or her own life, the deceased would have done so immediately (not after a week). Furthermore, the applicants were not mentioned in any suicide notes.
