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Rakesh & Anr. v. The State of Haryana

Criminal Appeal · 2018 INSC 951Decided 10 Oct 2018
Criminal Appeal No. 1869 of 2017
Justice R. Banumathi · Justice Indira Banerjee

Background

Rakesh and his brother Dalbir were convicted by a Trial Court, and that conviction was later upheld by the Punjab and Haryana High Court, for attacking Raj Kishan in April 2000 amid a long-running family feud (triggered by an earlier alleged abduction). Rakesh struck Raj Kishan on the head with a wooden stick ("dang"), while Dalbir shot him in the neck; Dalbir was also convicted separately under the Arms Act for the firearm. Both appellants were sentenced to seven years' imprisonment for attempt to murder, and they appealed to the Supreme Court seeking either a lesser conviction (under Section 325 IPC, for causing grievous hurt, instead of attempt to murder) or a reduced sentence.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that, given the medical evidence (the firearm injury was potentially fatal) and the eyewitness testimony of the injured victim, the conviction under Section 307 IPC for attempt to murder was fully justified and declined to downgrade it to Section 325 IPC. However, considering that the incident occurred in 2000 and that the appellants were only 24 and 26 years old at the time, the Court exercised leniency on sentencing and reduced their term of imprisonment from seven years to five years, while leaving the conviction itself undisturbed.

Lesson Learnt

Courts can uphold a serious conviction (like attempt to murder) based on strong medical and eyewitness evidence while still moderating the sentence length in light of mitigating factors such as the offenders' young age at the time and the long passage of time since the offence.

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

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