The Hon’ble Supreme Court on Tuesday made a modification in a murder conviction to that of culpable homicide not amounting to murder after noting that the weapon of attack was a stick, on which the court opined that it was not a deadly weapon.
A bench of Justices BR Gavai and JB Pardiwala was hearing a case in which a woman was accused of beating her husband during a quarrel that led to the death of the husband.
“The weapon used in the crime is a stick which was lying in the house, and which, by no means, can be called a deadly weapon. Therefore, the possibility of the appellant causing the death of the deceased while being deprived of the power of self-control, due to the provocation on account of the deceased not agreeing to pay Rs.500/- to PW-1, cannot be ruled out.”
The Court proceeded to reduce the jail sentence of the wife from life imprisonment to the period of imprisonment she had already undergone (almost nine years).
In May 2022, the Himachal Pradesh High Court order had found the woman guilty and thus upheld her murder conviction. The verdict was challenged by the woman (appellant) before the Supreme Court.
The appellant stated that she had beaten her husband with a stick after her daughter complained that he didn’t give her ₹500 to join so that she could join a National Cadet Corps (NCC) camp.
The Court also noted that the relations in the family were not cordial and that the couple often used to quarrel, and sometimes quite violently. On one such occasion, the Court observed that her husband had fractured the leg of the appellant-wife.
As such, the Court concluded that the appellant might have been provoked before she attacked her husband with a stick due to which, the man got died.
The Court stated, “There used to be persistent quarrels between the deceased and the appellant. In one of such incidents, the leg of the appellant was fractured by the deceased, and a case was already pending against him for the said offence. In our considered view, the appellant is entitled to the benefit of doubt, in as much as the offence committed shall fall under Exception I of Section 300 IPC. Thus, the conviction under Section 302 IPC needs to be altered into Part-I of Section 304 IPC.”
Therefore, the appeal was accepted, and the appellant’s conviction was changed to ‘culpable homicide’ from ‘murder’.
Advocate Aditya Dhawan appeared for the appellant. While Advocate Karan Kapur represented the Himachal Pradesh government.
Source: https://www.barandbench.com/news/litigation/stick-not-deadly-weapon-supreme-court-modifies-murder-conviction-wife-beating-husband-death