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Parshuram vs State of M.P.

SLP (Crl.) · 2023 INSC 973Decided 3 Nov 2023
SLP (Crl.) No. 1718 of 2022

Background

Following a dispute over a buffalo damaging a cattle shed built by one of the accused, a group of nine men allegedly waylaid the complainant's family (who were headed to lodge a police complaint), attacking them with weapons including a sword, spear, and a country-made bomb, killing one victim (Madan) and injuring several others. The trial court convicted seven of the accused, including the two appellants, of murder and related offences under Section 302 read with Section 149 IPC (unlawful assembly), sentencing them to life imprisonment; the High Court upheld the conviction. The appellants argued no specific role of causing death was attributed to them individually, and that the prosecution had not explained injuries sustained by the accused themselves.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that, following the Constitution Bench ruling in Masalti v. State of U.P., a person can be convicted with the aid of Section 149 IPC merely by being a member of an unlawful assembly sharing its common object: an individual overt act need not be proved against each member. However, the Court found the trial court had wrongly dismissed the significance of unexplained injuries sustained by three of the accused, which suggested the prosecution had suppressed the true origin of the incident (a cross-FIR had in fact been registered by the accused side first). Because it was not clearly established that the unlawful assembly's common object was to cause death, rather than merely to "teach a lesson" over the buffalo incident, the Court held the case fell short of murder and altered the conviction from Section 302 IPC to the lesser offence under Part II of Section 304 IPC (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), reducing the sentence to 7 years' rigorous imprisonment.

Lesson Learnt

In a group-violence case, being present as part of an unlawful assembly can make a person criminally liable for what the group does even without personally striking the fatal blow, but courts must still carefully examine whether the group actually intended to kill, and unexplained injuries on the accused's own side can create real doubt about who the true aggressor was.

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

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