State of Punjab vs Resham Singh

K. S Bhalla, J.

On 27.7.1986 at about 630 P.M., deceased Madan Singh was present at the shop of Kishan Lal and was sitting outside the door of the shop quite close to it at village Gurhi Sanghar. His soninlaw Sukhdarshan Singh (PW 4), the informant, was standing in the street nearby who had gone to his inlaws on the previous day. Gurjit Kaur (PW 5), daughter of the deceased, came there to call them both to come for the dinner to the house situated at a distance of about 10 karams from the aforesaid shop. Accused Resham Singh who is none else but the nephew of Madan Singh came there and told the deceased that he had not done well in filing partition proceedings against them regarding joint land. The deceased replied that he had simply knocked at the door of the court in exercise of his right to get his share of land. Thereafter, the accused remarked that he was going to give him that right and suddenly gave a kard (kitchen knife) below which landed on the left side of the chest of the deceased after taking out from the loin fold of his Pyjama. PWs Sukhdarsan Singh and Gurjit Kaur raised an alarm at which accused Resham Singh ran away and along took the weapon. On receipt of the injury, Madan Singh fell down. After the accused left, PW Dharam Singh arrived there. He brought a jeep within 15 minutes and Madan Singh was carried towards Civil Hospital, Jaito but he succumbed to his injury on the way, whereupon his dead body was brought back to his house. Sukhdarshan Singh (PW 4) went to Police Station Kot Bhai accompanied by Chaukidar of the village and lodged first information report Exhibit PF. This set the police in motion.

Sub Inspector Gurmel Singh (PW 6) the then Station House Officer, Kot Bhai, visited the spot, raised bloodstained earth, conducted inquest and prepared rough siteplan. After the inquest, the dead body was sent for postmortem examination.

Autopsy on the dead body of Madan Singh deceased was performed by Dr. Madan Mohan (PW1) on 2871986 at 10.15 A.M. and single injury was found on the dead body which according to the Doctor was ante mortem and sufficient to cause death in the ordinary course of nature. The death as per Doctor was immediate after the receipt of injury and the probable time that elapsed between death and postmortem examination was within 24 hours. Exhibit PA is the correct carbon copy of the postmortem report and Exhibit PA/1 is the pictorial diagram showing seat of the injury.

Accused Resham Singh was arrested on 581986. Kard Exhibit P5 was recovered at his instance and ultimately on completion of usual investigations, he was challaned.

On trial, vide its impugned judgment dated 751987, the trial Court convicted Resham Singh under Section 304 PartII of the Indian Penal Code and sentenced him to undergo rigorous imprisonment for seven years as well as to pay a fine of Rs. 5,000/ in default of payment of which fine he was directed to suffer rigorous imprisonment for a further period of two years.

Feeling aggrieved by his acquittal under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code the State of Punjab has preferred Criminal Appeal No. 480DBA1987. Accused Resham Singh also preferred appeal against his conviction and sentence and the same is Criminal Appeal No. 354DB1987. The trial court in its aforesaid judgment ordered an inquiry as envisaged under Section 340 of the Code of Criminal Procedure against Dr. Madan Lal Kakkar S.M.O., Civil Hospital Jaito (D.W.1) and Dharam Singh (D.W. 2) and that led to Criminal Miscellaneous No. 4649M of 1987, Dr. Madan Lal Kakkar v. State of Punjab, and Criminal Miscellaneous No. 4650M of 1987, Dharam Singh v. State of Punjab. PW Sukhdarshan Singh has preferred Criminal Revision No. 731 of 1987. The Criminal Revision as well as Criminal Miscellaneous Petition referred to above were ordered to be heard along with Criminal Appeal No. 354SB of 1987.

As is obvious from the facts narrated above, the short question involved in Criminal Appeal No. 480DBA of 1987 relates to the offence only. It is directed against the conviction of Resham Singh under Section 304 Part II of the Indian Penal Code instead of one under Section 302 of the said Code with regard to his causing of death. Question of offence naturally would arise only after the facts of the case are accepted to be correct and it is presumed that death of Madan Singh was caused by Resham Singh. Thus, evidence placed on the record with regard to actual commission of the offence is not required to be appreciated for the disposal of Criminal Appeal No. 480DBA1987 and question involved being purely legal one, facts can conveniently be presumed to be correct without analysis or comment.

Accused and the deceased are closely related to each other. No previous background of any enmity is alleged. Admittedly, a brief altercation preceded the assault wherein Resham Singh objected to deceased''s filing of partition proceedings and he asserted that he only exercised his right to get share out of joint land as a result whereof single blow with ordinary kitchen knife was given. That blow unfortunately landed on the left side of the chest of Madan Singh and proved fatal. No second blow was repeated although there was an occasion for the same. Under the circumstances, it cannot be said that there was an intention to kill although the assailant can be fixed with knowledge that he was likely to inflict an injury which was likely to cause death. In such circumstances, the apex Court has also quite often modified the conviction to one under Section 304 Part II of the Indian Penal Code from the one under Section 302 of the said Code, holding that the case would not be covered by clause Thirdly of Section 300 of the Indian Penal Code, such as in Jawahar Lal and another v. State of Punjab, 1983(1), Recent Criminal Reports 83 (SC) and Tholan v. State of Tamil Nadu, 1984 Crl. L.J. 478 (SC). Resham Singh has, therefore, rightly been not made responsible for culpable homicide amounting to murder punishable under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code and his acquittal to the extent of that offence does not call for any interference. In result Criminal Appeal No. 480DBA of 1987 is dismissed. Criminal Appeal No. 354SB of 1987 and connected Revision as well as Criminal Miscellaneous Petitions may now be listed before Single Bench in due course.