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Shahid Ali vs. The State of Uttar Pradesh

Not available · 2024 INSC 191Decided 11 Mar 2024
Not available
Justice Vikram Nath · Justice Satish Chandra Sharma

Background

During a wedding celebration in 2016, the appellant engaged in celebratory gunfire and a bullet struck and killed a guest, Ishfaq Ali. He was tried and convicted of murder under Section 302 IPC and sentenced to life imprisonment, plus a separate conviction under the Arms Act; the Allahabad High Court upheld the conviction. Notably, every eyewitness who initially supported the prosecution's account of enmity between the appellant and the deceased turned hostile during trial and denied any prior animosity. The Supreme Court had earlier restricted its notice to the narrow question of whether the offence should instead be culpable homicide (Section 304 IPC) rather than murder.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court found no evidence that the appellant had aimed the gun at the deceased or the crowd, nor was there any proven enmity between them, all eyewitnesses to that effect had turned hostile. Relying on its precedents in Kunwar Pal Singh v. State of Uttarakhand and Bhagwan Singh v. State of Uttarakhand, which dealt with similar "celebratory firing" deaths, the Court held that firing a loaded gun in a crowded gathering, even without intent to kill, carries the knowledge that it is likely to cause death, meeting the threshold for culpable homicide not amounting to murder (Section 304 Part II IPC), rather than murder (Section 302 IPC). It set aside the murder conviction, convicted the appellant instead under Section 304 Part II, and since he had already served about 8 years in custody, sentenced him to time served, ordering his immediate release; the separate Arms Act conviction was left undisturbed.

Lesson Learnt

Firing a gun carelessly in a crowd (even in celebration, without any intent to kill or hit a specific person) is a serious criminal offence, because the law treats "knowledge that an act is likely to cause death" as sufficient for culpable homicide, distinct from and generally less severe than murder, which requires actual intent.

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

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