Sentence under Section 304 Part II reduced finding absence of common intention: SC

Supreme Court: The Bench comprising of Navin Sinha and K.M. Joseph, JJ., while addressing a criminal appeal regarding assault committed during a dispute between neighbors with regard to strayed cattle in which Appellant 2 was additionally convicted under Section 304 Part II read with Section 34 IPC, altered the sentence from 8 years to 2 years.

The facts of the case as laid down in a nutshell state that some bullocks which belonged to the appellants had strayed into the compound of the deceased. The deceased, in order to drive them away from his land, used lathi which came onto the notice of the appellants and led to some altercation between the two which ended up with major injuries to the deceased and led to his death.

The contentions placed by the appellants’ counsel were that the injuries suffered by the appellants explain that they had only acted in self-defence and they were not the aggressors. There was no intention to cause death; much less the knowledge can be attributed from the nature of the assault. Further, the submissions state that the offence deserved to be reduced and or/alternatively the sentence was excessive in the facts of the case. For the stated contentions they placed reliance on Darshan Singh v. State of Punjab, 2009 (16) SCC 290 and Maqsood v. State of U.P, 2016 (15) SCC 748.

The Supreme Court on noting the circumstances, evidences and the contentions placed, concluded by stating that the occurrence had taken place at the spur of the moment without any premeditation. Appellant only intended to vent their ire against neighbour for having assaulted their bullocks. Since there was no presence of common intention that makes Appellant 2 individually answerable and as the occurrence had taken place in 1980, the Court was convinced to reduce the sentence to 2 years by putting reliance on the case aforementioned.  The appeal was allowed to the stated extent. [Lakshmi Chand v. State of U.P., 2018 SCC OnLine SC 1135, decided on 24-08-2018]