ISSUE:
Whether “threat to commit suicide”vitiates free consent and falls under Section 15 i.e coercion of the Indian Contract Act, 1872.
RULE:
Threat to commit suicide would prejudice any reasonable wife and son.
As section 15 reads "the committing, or threatening to commit, any act forbidden by the Indian Penal Code, Suicide is covered in the definition of culpable homicide and hence The threat of suicide amounts to coercion within Section 15.
While suicide itself was not a punishable offense under the Indian Penal Code (IPC), abetment of suicide (Section 306 IPC) and attempt to commit suicide (Section 309 IPC) were punishable offenses.
An act like suicide can be forbidden, even if it is not punishable.
The court held that if a person threatens suicide to force someone into an agreement, it falls within the ambit of coercion since abetment or an attempt to commit suicide is prohibited by law.