Crescent School of Law: Murder and Culpable homicide in the Indian penal code, 1860_ Crescent school of law

In the railway station, there was a fight between two men A and B suddenly man A pushed down man B on the track and because of the severe injury the man B died. A question arises that whether it is a Culpable homicide (S.299) or Murder (S.300)?

What is Culpable homicide?

The act is done to cause such bodily injury for which the offender knows that it would result in death. (S.299)

What is Murder?

An act of injury caused by a person to kill another person or to cause such bodily injury which in turn causes the death of such person or voluntarily commits an act that causes death. (S.300)

Punishment for Murder and Culpable homicide:

The punishment for Murder (S.302) is death or imprisonment for life and shall also be liable to a fine. And the punishment for Culpable homicide (S.304) is comparatively less than murder which is imprisonment for life, ten years and shall also be liable to fine. And both punishment is either description of a term.

(Either rigorous/simple)

Section

Offence

Punishment

302

Murder

Death, or imprisonment for life and fine

304

Culpable homicide not amounting to murder, if act by which the death is caused with the intention of causing death, etc.

If act is done with knowledge that it is likely to cause death, but without any intention to cause death, etc.

Imprisonment for life, or imprisonment for 10 years and fine.

Imprisonment for 10 years, or fine, or both.

Phrase:

All Murders are Culpable Homicide but not all Culpable Homicide are not Murders.

5 exceptions to Murder (S.300) which come under Culpable homicide (S.299):

Grave and sudden provocation
Exceeding the right of private defense
Public servant exceeding his power
Sudden fight
Death by consent

CRPC code:

Offence	Cognizable /Non-cognizable	Bailable/Non-bailable	By what court trailable
Culpable homicide (S.304)	Cognizable	Bailable	Court of session
Murder (S.302)	Cognizable	Bailable	Court of session

Case laws:

Reg. v. Govinda (1877) ILR 1 Bom 342), the accused had knocked down his wife, kept a knee on her chest and gave two to three violent blows with the closed fist on her face. This act produced extraversion of blood on her brain and afterwards, the wife died due to this. The act was not committed with the intention of causing death and the bodily injury was not sufficient to cause death in the ordinary course of nature. The accused was liable to culpable homicide not amounting to murder.

Vikas Yadav v. State of U.P. (2016) 3 SCC (cri) 621, honor killings, for whatever reason, come within the category of the rarest of rare deserving death punishment. As circumstantial evidence clearly established singular confidence that anger of brother on involvement of sister with deceased (a person of lower caste) was the only motive behind murder and the crime was committed in a planned and cold-blooded manner because of this unwarranted superiority based on caste, life imprisonment by trail court converted to minimum non-remittable fixed term of 25 years by High Court, held, appropriate. The accused were prosecuted under murder.

Legislature on death sentence in Murder:

Ravi v. State of Maharastra (2019) 9 SCC 622, Legislature has distanced itself from propounds of “No-Death sentence” in “No-Circumstances” theory as recently in 2019. Significantly, by 2019 Amendment of Section 6, POCSO Act, 2012, death sentence has been introduced as a penalty for offence of aggravated penetrative sexual assault on a child below 12 yrs. If parliament, armed with adequate Facts and figures, has decided to introduce capital punishment for the offence of sexual abuse of a child, 2019, the court hitherto will bear in mind the latest Legislature policy even though it has no applicability in a case where the offence was committed prior thereto. Judicial precedents rendered before this recent amendment of 2019 came into force, therefore, ought to be viewed with a purposive approach so that the legislature and judicial approaches are well harmonized.

Attempt to commit Murder (S.307) and Culpable Homicide (S.308):

In Indian penal code there is also punishment for attempt to commit murder and culpable homicide given respectively under Section 307 and 308. Since our legal system also punishes attempt to a crime. Consider two persons one is A and other is B. A shoots B with an intention to kill B and A fails and A will be prosecuted in Section 307 Attempt to commit murder.

Punishment for attempt to commit Murder (S.307):

Whoever does any act with such intention or knowledge, and under such circumstances that, if he by that act caused death, he would be guilty of murder, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description of a term which may be extended to ten years, and shall also be liable to fine and if hurt caused to any person by such act, the offender shall be liable either to imprisonment for life.

Punishment for attempt to commit Culpable homicide (S.308):

Whoever does any act with such intention or knowledge and under such circumstances that, if he by that act caused, he would be guilty of culpable homicide not amounting to murder, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to three years, or with fine, or with both; and, if hurt is caused to any person by such act, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to seven years, or with fine, or with both.

Section

Offence

Punishment

307

Attempt to commit murder

If such act causes hurt to any person

Attempt by life-convict to murder; if hurt caused.

Imprisonment for 10 years and fine.

Imprisonment of life, or imprisonment for 10 years and fine.

Death or imprisonment for 10 years and fine.

308

Attempt to commit culpable homicide

If such act causes hurt to any person

Imprisonment for 3 years, or fine, or both.

Imprisonment for 7 years, or fine, or both.

CRPC code:

Section

Offence

Cognizable or non-Cognizable

Bailable or non-bailable

By what court triable

307

Attempt to murder

Cognizable

Bailable

Court of session

308

Attempt to commit Culpable homicide

Cognizable

Bailable

Court of session

Case law:

State of M.P. V. Kanha (2019) 3 SCC 605, proof of grievous or life-threatening hurt is not a sine qua non for offence under S.307. Intention of accused can be ascertained from actual injury, if any, as well as from surrounding circumstances. Among other things, nature of weapon used and severity of blows inflicted, can be considered to infer intent.