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Awadhesh Kumar v. The State of Uttar Pradesh & Anr.

Criminal Appeal · 2019 INSC 1229Decided 8 Nov 2019
Criminal Appeal No. 1670 of 2019
Justice Arun Mishra · Justice M.R. Shah · Justice S. Ravindra Bhat

Background

During a dispute in which the complainant's mother was confronting a neighbor about his nephew's bad behaviour, the neighbor's family returned with a country-made pistol and shot her; she later died. The trial court convicted the shooter under Section 302 IPC (murder) and acquitted three co-accused. On appeal, the Allahabad High Court downgraded the conviction to Section 304 Part I IPC (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), reasoning it was an unplanned act committed in the heat of the moment, bringing it within Exception 4 to Section 300 IPC. The original complainant appealed to the Supreme Court against this downgrading.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that Exception 4 to Section 300 IPC, which can reduce murder to culpable homicide, applies only where there was a genuine "fight," meaning a mutual, bilateral exchange of provocation and blows on both sides, with the offender not taking undue advantage. Here, the evidence showed the accused and his associates returned with a firearm after a verbal altercation, the victim's side was unarmed and gave no further provocation, and the accused fired from close range after declaring he had nothing to fear since he was "already convicted." Relying on precedent (including Bhagwan Munjaji Pawade vs State of Maharashtra), the Court held these facts showed deliberate intent to kill rather than a sudden heat-of-passion fight, so Exception 4 did not apply. The Court restored the trial court's conviction under Section 302 IPC and directed the accused to surrender within three months to serve the original sentence.

Lesson Learnt

A killing is not automatically reduced from murder to culpable homicide just because it followed a quarrel: the law requires a genuine mutual fight with provocation and blows from both sides; firing a weapon at an unarmed person from close range, with no return provocation, remains murder even if the underlying dispute was sudden and unplanned.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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