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Chandrakumar @ Kali v. The State of Madhya Pradesh

Criminal Appeal · 2020 INSC 260Decided 3 Mar 2020
Criminal Appeal No. 378 of 2020
Justice R. Banumathi · Justice A.S. Bopanna

Background

During a quarrel over a short quantity of milk at a dairy, the appellant struck the victim on the head with a bamboo stick; the victim fell unconscious and later died from the injuries. The appellant was convicted by the trial court under Section 304 Part II IPC (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and sentenced to ten years' rigorous imprisonment. The High Court of Madhya Pradesh reduced this sentence to five years. The appellant then approached the Supreme Court, confining his challenge solely to the question of sentence, citing that he had two unmarried daughters and no other male family member to support them.

Decision Breakdown

Taking into account the peculiar facts and the appellant's family circumstances, the Supreme Court further reduced the sentence from five years to two years, partly allowing the appeal. The Court expressly clarified that this reduction was granted because of the specific, peculiar facts of this case and should not be treated as a precedent for sentence reduction in other, similar cases.

Lesson Learnt

Courts can and do weigh genuine personal and family hardship when deciding on the length of a sentence, but such leniency is fact-specific to the individual case and is not meant to set a general rule for how similar offences should be punished.

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

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