Section 108 punishes abetting the commission of suicide by any person, with imprisonment of either description up to ten years, and fine. This is the general offence, distinct from Section 107's enhanced punishment where the person is a child, of unsound mind, delirious, or intoxicated.
Verified against the National Crime Records Bureau's official BNS–IPC concordance (Sankalan Portal), which maps Section 108 to old IPC Section 306, and cross-checked directly against the bare text of both Acts.
| BNS section | IPC, 1860 equivalent | Category |
|---|---|---|
| 108 | 306 | Exact |
Comparing the two texts word for word, Section 108 is reproduced without any substantive change from old IPC Section 306.
If any person commits suicide, whoever abets the commission of such suicide, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten years, and shall also be liable to fine.
Source: Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (Act No. 45 of 2023), as published in the Gazette of India Extraordinary.
Section 108 is the general offence of abetting suicide, applying whenever any person commits suicide and another person has abetted that act. It carries a lower maximum punishment than Section 107, which applies only where the person committing suicide falls within one of the specifically listed vulnerable categories. Where none of those categories apply, Section 108 is the operative provision.
These judgment(s) relate to Section 108 as a whole rather than to one specific sub-section, and so are presented together here rather than alongside a particular clause above.
The accused were alleged to have driven the deceased to suicide. The Supreme Court discharged them, holding that instigation — the positive act Section 108 requires before abetment of suicide can be made out — demands words or conduct with a reasonable certainty of provoking the specific consequence, close in time to the act itself; a stray angry remark, or conduct too remote from the suicide to have driven it, does not suffice. The Court treated this as the settled, general test for instigation, applicable wherever abetment (Section 45) is in issue, not only in suicide cases.
Currency check: decided December 2024, applying long-settled authority (Ramesh Kumar v. State of Chhattisgarh and the line of cases following it); no overruling found in this review.
Section 107 applies where the person who commits suicide is a child, a person of unsound mind, a delirious person, or a person in a state of intoxication, and carries a higher potential punishment, including death or imprisonment for life. Section 108 is the general offence, applying to any other person, with a lower maximum punishment of ten years' imprisonment.
Yes. Section 108 applies where a person "commits suicide" and another abets that act — the offence is tied to the actual commission of suicide.
No. Per the BNSS First Schedule, it is non-bailable, cognizable, and triable by the Court of Session.