NDLI: State of Rajasthan Vs. Mehram & Ors.

Content Provider	Supreme Court of India
e-ISSN	30484839
Language	English
Access Restriction	NDLI
Subject Keyword	Penal Code
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Law Judgement
Jurisdiction	India
Act(s) Referred	Indian Penal Code (45 of 1860)
Case(s) Referred	Referred Case 0 Referred Case 1 Referred Case 2 Referred Case 3 Referred Case 4 Referred Case 5 Referred Case 6
Case Type	Appeal
Court	Supreme Court of India
Disposal Nature	Appeal Disposed Off
Headnote	Penal Code, 1860 – Conversion of conviction from s.302 IPC to s.326 IPC – The complainant’s case that they used an old way passing through the fields of accused persons to go to their field – There was a dispute between the parties for using the fields as a passage – On the day of incident, the accused persons armed with ‘Kassies’ and lathies come out from the back of the bushes and surrounded the complainant when he was passing through fields – The accused tried to strike the complainant, however, the victim and other persons arrived from their fields – Thereafter, the accused No. 5/respondent no. 1 struck a ‘kassi’ blow on the head of the victim, due which he fell and later on died – There were beatings from both sides and after the intervention of other villagers, the accused persons ran away – The case was committed by the Sessions Court and the accused no. 5/respondent no. 1 came to be convicted u/ss. 148, 302, 324/149 IPC and sentenced to undergo life imprisonment – All the five accused including accused no. 5 preferred appeal before the High Court – As regards, accused no. 5/respondent no. 1, the High Court converted the conviction u/s. 302 IPC into one under s. 326 IPC on the finding that the said accused had exceeded his right of private defence – On appeal, held: On perusal of the relevant evidence and the judgments of the Trial Court and the High Court, there is no reason to depart from the conclusion reached by the Trial Court that there were tangible circumstances and evidence to indicate that the accused party was the aggressor, who was hiding in the bushes and appeared only after the complainant party arrived on the spot – The accused party armed with lethal weapons assaulted the complainant party – The blows inflicted by the concerned accused, in particular accused No. 5, here with intention to kill the victim/deceased – The High Court proceeded on the erroneous assumption that the accused party were provoked due to the unauthorized entry of the complainant party on their fields and to defend their possession, they had to resort to right of private defence – In the instant case, there was no evidence produced to substantiate the plea of exercise of private defence – The incident in question occurred due to provocation and spiralled into a free fight – Further, once it is a case of accused party being the aggressors and they commenced assault on the complainant party and the accused No. 5/respondent No. 1 having been found to have assaulted victim/deceased with intention to kill him the question of invoking the right of private defence does not arise – Insofar the conviction of the accused no.5/respondent no.1 is concerned, the sequence of events would indicate that provocation was not invited by the accused party, but was obviously at the instance of the complainant party, who entered the fields unauthorisedly despite the objection taken by the complainant party in that regard on the same day earlier – The death of the victim was caused by the one fatal blow on the head, which was with the intention of causing his death or causing such bodily injury as is likely to cause death, therefore, the case would be covered by s. 304-I, IPC – Accordingly, the impugned judgment of the High Court and that of the Trial Court are modified by convicting the accused no. 5/respondent no. 1 for offence punishable u/s. 304-I and s. 148 IPC.
Judge	Hon'ble Mr. Justice A.M. Khanwilkar
Neutral Citation	2020 INSC 384
Petitioner	State Of Rajasthan
Respondent	Mehram & Ors.
SCR	[2020] 5 S.C.R. 234
Judgement Date	2020-05-06
Case Number	1894

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