'Stick lying in the house cannot be called a deadly weapon': SC reduces punishment of wife convicted for beating husband to death

New Delhi, Aug 1:  The Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that a stick lying in the house cannot be called a deadly weapon as it heard the appeal of a woman convicted for beating husband to death.

A bench of Justices B.R. Gavai and J.B. Pardiwala converted the sentence of the accused from Section 302 IPC (murder) to part I of Section 304 IPC (culpable homicide not amounting to murder).

In the present case, the wife gave several blows with the stick resulting in the death of Mast Ram after his daughter had demanded some money from him to attend a National Cadet Corps Camp. On refusal, an altercation had ensued between the husband and wife.

During interrogation, it was also revealed that Mast Ram was of a quarrelsome nature and used to beat his wife regularly. In one of such incidents, the leg of the wife was fractured by the husband.

The Supreme Court said that the possibility of the wife causing the death of her husband, due to the provocation on account of the deceased not agreeing to pay Rs.500 to her daughter, cannot be ruled out. It noted that the weapon used in the crime was a stick which was lying in the house and said that by no means a danda (stick) can be called a “deadly weapon”.

In 2022, the Himachal Pradesh High Court upheld the judgment of the trial court sentencing the appellant to undergo life imprisonment for offences punishable under Sections 302 and 201 IPC. The Supreme Court allowed the appeal and extended the benefit of doubt observing that the offence committed shall fall under Exception I of Section 300 IPC and not under 302 IPC.

"The appellant has already been incarcerated for a period of almost 9 years, and, therefore, we find that the sentence already undergone would serve the ends of justice," it said while releasing the woman.


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