Penal Code, 1860 – s.302 – Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 – s.3(2)(v) – Murder – Prosecution case that when victim was cultivating the field and grazing his cattle, appellant-accused came to the field of the victim and left his buffaloes for grazing – In a wordy altercation, the appellant hit the victim on his head with an axe due to which victim fell down and later succumbed to injuries – FIR was registered against the appellant u/s. 302 IPC and u/s. 3(2)(v) of the SC/ST(Prevention of Atrocities) Act – Trial Court convicted appellant under the said sections of the Act and sentenced him life imprisonment – High Court affirmed the conviction – On appeal, held: In the instant case, the appellant and deceased exchanged wordy abuses on which, appellant gave deceased blows on his head causing six head injuries – Where the occurrence took place suddenly and there was no premeditation on the part of the accused, it falls under Exception 4 to s. 300 IPC – Therefore, conviction of appellant u/s.302 IPC is modified as conviction u/s. 304 Part-II IPC – Insofar as conviction under SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act is concerned, from the evidence and other materials on record, there is nothing to suggest that the offence was committed by the appellant only because the deceased belonged to a Scheduled Caste – Thus, conviction u/s. 3(2)(v) of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act is not sustainable.
Partly allowing the appeal, the Court
HELD: 1. The entire incident was in a sudden fight in which the appellant-accused caused head injuries on the deceased with an axe. There was no prior deliberation or determination to fight. The sudden quarrel arose between the parties due to trivial issue of grazing the buffaloes of the appellant for which, the deceased raised objection. In a sudden fight, the appellant had inflicted blows on the head of the deceased with an axe which caused six head injuries. Though the weapon used by the appellant was axe and the injuries were inflicted on the vital part of the body viz. head, knowledge is attributable to the appellant-accused that the injuries are likely to cause death. Considering the fact that the occurrence was in a sudden fight, in our view, the occurrence would fall under Exception 4 to Section 300 IPC. The conviction of the appellant-accused under Section 302 IPC is therefore to be modified as conviction under Section 304 Part II IPC. [Para 10] [275-D-F]
2. The next question falling for consideration is whether the conviction under Section 3(2)(v) of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act can be sustained? Deceased belongs to “Khangar” Caste and in a wordy altercation, appellant-accused is said to have called the deceased by his caste name “Khangar” and attacked him with an axe. Calling of the deceased by his Caste name is admittedly in the field when there was a sudden quarrel regarding grazing of the buffaloes. [Para 11] [275-G-H]
3. The object of Section 3(2)(v) of the Act is to provide for enhanced punishment with regard to the offences under the Indian Penal Code punishable with imprisonment for a term of ten years or more against a person or property knowing that the victim is a member of a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe. In the present case, the fact that the deceased was belonging to “Khangar”-Scheduled Caste is not disputed. There is no evidence to show that the offence was committed only on the ground that the victim was a member of the Scheduled Caste and therefore, the conviction of the appellant-accused under Section 3(2)(v) of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act is not sustainable. [Paras 12, 13] [276-F; 277-BC]
Dinesh alias Buddha v. State of Rajasthan (2006) 3 SCC
771 : [2006] 2 SCR 793 – relied on.
As published in the Supreme Court Reports, Supreme Court of India. Text from the Indian Supreme Court Judgments open data set (Dattam Labs), CC BY 4.0.
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