Sharad vs State Of Maharashtra

The appellant herein was tried by the Ist Adhoc Additional

Sessions Judge, Wardha for the offence punishable under Section 302

and was sentenced for undergoing life imprisonment with a fine of

Rs.1,000/- in default to suffer rigorous imprisonment for one month.

The appellant then filed an appeal before the High Court and the

same was dismissed by the High Court. The appellant preferred this

appeal and at the time of issuing notice we have indicated that the

appeal is only confined to the question of nature of the offence.

Heard both sides.

Learned counsel for the appellant contends that the

appellant was a young man aged about 20 years at the time of the

incident; and there was no pre-mediation or serious intention to

kill the deceased. Appellant had a quarrel with one Mukesh in which

one Manoj Kashyap and one Sanjay Pande intervened and separated them

each other. Thereafter the accused went from the place of incident

and he met Mukesh later and it appears that there was a quarrel

thereafter and the accused caused injury to Mukesh and he died. The

injury was on the left side of the chest near sternum between 3 rd and 4th rib. There is also another injury which is superficial in nature.

Learned counsel for the appellant contends that there is only one

injury and that too pursuant to the altercation and there is no

evidence to show that there was any previous enmity or not. The

appellant's contention is that the offence committed does not amount

to murder. Going by the injury sustained by the deceased and having

regard to the entire facts and circumstances of the case, in our

opinion, the offence committed by the appellant, at the most, comes

under Part -I of Section 304 I.P.C. We, therefore, set aside the

conviction of the appellant under Section 302 I.P.C. and find him

guilty under Section 304 Part-I of IPC and sentence him to undergo

imprisonment for 10 years. The appellant will undergo the remaining

period of sentence.

The appeal is disposed of accordingly.

..................CJI (K.G. BALAKRISHNAN)

...................J. (TARUN CHATTERJEE)

...................J. (Dr. B.S. CHAUHAN) NEW DELHI;

23RD OCTOBER, 2009