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The State of Himachal Pradesh v. Shamsher Singh

Criminal Appeal · 2025 INSC 503Decided 17 Apr 2025
Criminal Appeal No. 476 of 2015
Justice Pankaj Mithal · Justice S.V.N. Bhatti

Background

On Diwali night in 2010, the respondent, a police constable posted as a guard, got angry about the quality of mess food and about his colleagues bursting firecrackers. He opened fire with his service AK-47 rifle, hitting fellow constable Sanjeet Kumar with four bullet wounds in both thighs, and fired a second time before being overpowered and disarmed. The trial court convicted him under Section 307 IPC (attempt to murder) and the Arms Act, sentencing him to seven years' imprisonment, but the Himachal Pradesh High Court acquitted him of attempt to murder, convicting him instead only of the lesser offence under Section 326 IPC (causing grievous hurt) and sentencing him to time already served.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that the High Court wrongly focused only on the fact that the injuries, though grievous, were not life-threatening: Section 307 IPC requires only proof of intention or knowledge that death could result, not that the actual injury be fatal or even grievous. Given that the respondent, a trained member of a disciplined force, fired an AK-47 (a lethal weapon) multiple times at close range at colleagues in anger, the Court found clear intention/knowledge that his act could cause death, satisfying Section 307. It restored the trial court's conviction under Section 307 IPC and the Arms Act, but (considering the case was 15 years old, the incident arose from a sudden fit of rage, and the accused belonged to a disciplined force) reduced his sentence to the roughly one year five months he had already served, rather than the original seven years.

Lesson Learnt

For a charge of attempt to murder, what matters is whether the accused acted with intent or knowledge that death could result, not how serious the victim's actual injuries turned out to be; a person cannot escape a Section 307 conviction merely because, by chance, the victim survived with less severe wounds than the weapon and manner of attack could have caused.

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

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