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Saddik @ Lalo Gulam Hussein Shaikh & Ors. v. State of Gujarat

Criminal Appeal · Neutral citation not assigned (Criminal Appeal Nos. 1999-2000 of 2010)Decided 3 Oct 2016
Criminal Appeal Nos. 1999-2000 of 2010
Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghose · Justice Amitava Roy

Background

A dispute over payment for four plates of biryani at a food stall escalated into a fatal attack. The stall owner and several associates later confronted the complainant's group with knives and sticks, fatally stabbing one person and injuring others. The trial court convicted the accused under Section 302 read with Sections 143, 147, 148 and 323 IPC, and the Gujarat High Court upheld the conviction. The accused appealed to the Supreme Court by special leave.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that its power under Article 136 is not meant to disturb concurrent findings of fact by two lower courts except in exceptional circumstances, and found none here. It upheld that all the accused shared a "common object" under Section 149 IPC, since they arrived together armed with knives and sticks after the initial altercation, making every member of the unlawful assembly liable for the resulting murder regardless of who struck the fatal blow. The Court also rejected the plea for a lesser offense (Section 304 Part II), holding the attack was not a sudden, unpremeditated act in the heat of passion but a planned assault by nine armed men. The appeals were dismissed and the conviction and sentence affirmed.

Lesson Learnt

If you join a group that goes somewhere armed with weapons for a confrontation, you can be held equally guilty for a killing committed by any member of that group: courts don't require proof of exactly who struck the fatal blow once a shared "common object" to commit violence is established.

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

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