The Supreme Court has acquitted a Jaipur man who was serving a ten-year sentence for abetting his wife's suicide, holding that the prosecution's central evidence — four letters attributed to him — was never proved to be in his handwriting. A bench of Justice Sandeep Mehta and Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya allowed the appeal in Goverdhan v. State of Rajasthan on November 3, 2026, and set aside the judgments of the trial court and the Rajasthan High Court, Verdictum reported.

Source: Verdictum

Goverdhan was convicted under Section 306 of the Indian Penal Code by the Additional Sessions Judge, Women Atrocities Cases No. 1, Jaipur Metropolitan, on December 9, 2016, and sentenced to ten years' rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs 50,000. The Rajasthan High Court dismissed his appeal on May 11, 2017. The prosecution alleged that he and his father harassed his wife Anju, whom he married in 1996, and that she died by suicide in January 2011; the only palpable evidence of abetment, the Supreme Court noted, was four postcard letters said to contain abusive language and threats.

Source: CourtBook

"If, at all, the prosecution wishes to rely upon the report of a handwriting expert in order to prove and attribute the handwriting on a particular document to that of another person, it is essential to examine the handwriting expert in evidence because handwriting comparison is not a perfect science and may be the subject matter of different interpretations," the bench held, adding that such reports are not admissible under Section 293 of the CrPC (Section 329 of the BNSS) and must be proved by examining the expert. In this case, no specimen handwriting of the appellant was ever obtained and the expert was never examined, so the defence had no chance to test the report in cross-examination.

The court further held that the letters, even if assumed to be in Goverdhan's handwriting, did not constitute abetment as defined under Section 107 of the IPC: alongside abuse and threats, they also contained appeals for reconciliation, and could not be treated as instigation to suicide, LawTrend reported. The bench relied on its earlier rulings in Magan Bihari Lal v. State of Punjab and Patel Babubhai Manohardas v. State of Gujarat on the need to examine handwriting experts.

Source: LawTrend

Goverdhan was accordingly acquitted of the charge under Section 306 IPC. As he was already on bail, the court directed that he need not surrender and discharged his bail bonds.