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Kariman vs. The State of Chhattisgarh

Not available · 2024 INSC 335Decided 22 Apr 2024
Not available
Justice B.R. Gavai

Background

The appellant was convicted of murdering his second wife, Dasmet Bai, in 1999 by chasing her, hitting her, and then striking her with a stone after she fell: an injury which fractured a rib and lacerated her spleen, causing her death. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, and his appeal was rejected by the Chhattisgarh High Court in 2016. His Special Leave Petition to the Supreme Court was filed a remarkable 2,461 days late, because as an incarcerated, legally unaware person he only later learned about free legal aid available through the Supreme Court Legal Services Committee, which then took up his case.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court first condoned the extraordinary delay, given the genuine and forgivable reason for it. On the merits, it examined the medical evidence and found the doctor never testified that the single injury was, in the ordinary course of nature, sufficient to cause death, only that the accused could be attributed with knowledge that his act was likely to cause death, not an intention to kill. Since the incident arose from a sudden, unplanned quarrel and involved a single blow, the Court held the offence did not meet the legal threshold for murder (Section 302 IPC) and instead fell under the lesser offence of culpable homicide not amounting to murder (Section 304, Part II IPC). It reduced the sentence to 7 years' rigorous imprisonment (which the appellant, having already served about 17 years, had long exceeded) and ordered his immediate release.

Lesson Learnt

A killing during a sudden quarrel, involving a single blow and without proof that the injury was inherently fatal, may legally amount to the lesser offence of culpable homicide rather than murder; and free legal aid can secure justice even for a prisoner who, through no fault of his own, was unaware of his right to appeal for years.

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

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