For an offence under Section 306 of the Indian Penal Code, there must be a clear mens rea to aid, instigate, or abet the deceased to commit suicide. Without a positive act on the part of the accused in aiding or instigating the deceased to commit suicide, the trial against the accused would be an abuse of process of law.

B.R. Gavai, J.

Rule. Rule made returnable forthwith. Heard finally by consent of learned counsel appearing for the parties.

2. We have to deal with this unfortunate case wherein four Judicial Officers of the Maharashtra State judiciary from Yavatmal district, including the Principal District Judge of the said district, have approached this Court praying for quashing and setting aside the first information report for the offence punishable under Section 306 of the Indian penal Code, alleging that they are responsible for the suicide committed by another Judicial Officer.

3. The facts in brief giving rise to the present application are as under :

Applicant no.1 is a senior Judicial Officer and presently posted as the Principal District Judge of Yavatmal district. Applicant no.2 is also in the cadre of Civil Judge, Senior Division and presently working as a Secretary of District Legal Services Authority at Yavatmal. The other three applicants are also working as Civil Judge, Senior Division at Yavatmal. A judicial officer namely Anup Jawalkar was posted at Yavatmal as Civil Judge, Senior Division on 02.08.2014. Subsequently, he was transferred at Darwha within the same district on the same post on 01.10.2015. The dead body of said Anup Jawalkar was found at a place near Chandur Railway in Amravati district on railway track on 06.03.2016. Accordingly, accidental death (AD) case came to be registered by Chandur Railway police station. However, subsequently, non-applicant no.2 contending that when the articles of the deceased were shifted to Pune, a suicide note was found wherein it was alleged that the present applicants were responsible for suicide of the deceased, lodged a report against the present applicants with Chandur-railway Police Station. On the basis of said oral report, an offence punishable under Section 306 read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code came to be registered vide Crime No. 113 of 2016 on 07.04.2016.

4. The present applicants have, therefore, approached this Court by way of present application under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure for quashing the criminal proceedings. Vide order dated 04.05.2016, this Court issued notice to the respondents and accordingly replies are filed by both the respondents.

5. Mr. Anil Mardikar, the learned senior counsel appearing on behalf of the applicants submits that even taking the allegations in the complaint lodged by the non-applicant no.2 and the suicide note at its face value, no case is made out for the offence punishable under Section 306 of the Indian Penal Code so far as present applicants are concerned. He submits that the only allegation, as could be found from the affidavit filed by the non-applicant no.2, is that the wife of deceased was informed about the alleged harassment by the applicant no.1. He submits that the respondent no.2 does not have personal knowledge and the affidavit filed by him is only on the basis of hearsay material. In any case, he submits that even taking the allegations at its face value, at the most what could be attributed is that the applicant no.1, in discharge of his official duties, had done some act or omissions on account of which, the deceased was aggrieved. However, he submits that even taking the same to be true in entirety, the same cannot be said to be an instigation to commit suicide so as to bring the matter within the scope of Section 306 of the Indian Penal Code.

6. The learned senior counsel submits that in any case, the said allegations are also without any substance. He submits that as a matter of fact, there was no case of harassment in transferring the deceased to Darwha. He submits that the deceased was the junior most Judicial Officer in the cadre of Civil Judge Senior Division and as such he was transferred to Darwha. He submits that it was not the case of pick and choose. He further submits that the allegation that the applicant no.1 ill-treated the deceased in the workshop is also without subst