Purnia vs State of Orissa

S. Murtaza Fazal Ali, J.—In this appeal under the Supreme Court (Enlargement of Crl. Appellate Jurisdiction) Act, the appellant has been convicted u/s 302 IPC and sentenced to imprisonment for life. The appellant was acquitted by the Trial Court but on appeal preferred by the State to the High Court, the order of acquittal by the Trial Court was reversed and converted into conviction as stated above. The facts of the case have been fully detailed in the judgment of the courts below.

Mr. Puri appearing in support of the appeal has submitted that even on the findings of the Trial Court no case u/s 302 IPC is made out on the proved facts. Mr. Mukherjee appearing for the Respondent conceded that in the circumstances of the present case, the case squarely falls not u/s 302 IPC but u/s 304(1) and the High Court was not justified in convicting the appellant u/s 302 IPC. After having gone through the judgment of the High Court and that of the Sessions Judge, we also feel that the case does not fall u/s 302 IPC but it falls u/s 304(1) IPC. For these reasons, therefore, the appeal is allowed to this extent that the conviction of the appellant altered from that u/s 302 IPC to one u/s 304(1) IPC and the sentence is reduced from life imprisonment to seven years' R.I.