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Sompal Singh v. State of Uttar Pradesh

Criminal Appeal · Neutral citation not assigned (Criminal Appeal No. 147 of 2009)Decided 16 May 2014
Criminal Appeal No. 147 of 2009
Justice B.S. Chauhan · Justice A.K. Sikri

Background

An agricultural dispute was followed by an armed assault in which Shanker Singh suffered injuries and later died. The High Court replaced the murder convictions with lesser offences, sentencing Kunwar Pal Singh to ten years for culpable homicide. In the Supreme Court, Sompal Singh had already served his separate sentence, while Kunwar Pal challenged his offence and punishment.

Decision Breakdown

The Court dismissed Sompal Singh's appeal as infructuous on the submission made for him. It upheld Kunwar Pal Singh's conviction under Section 304 Part I, but reduced his sentence from ten to seven years. His head wound, together with the other head injury inflicted by a co-accused, fell beyond mere hurt into injuries likely to cause death. The fact that his individual wound was not independently sufficient to cause death did not require the lesser classification sought. The Court took account of the incident having occurred about thirty-four years earlier when reducing punishment.

Lesson Learnt

An assault can support culpable-homicide liability even where one participant's injury was not independently fatal. Sentence reduction based on the circumstances of an old case does not erase the upheld conviction.

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

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