An army Jawan ‘X’ who was away from his home for the last two years, requested his senior ‘Y’ for leave, which ‘Y’ refused. Annoyed at this….

Question: An army Jawan ‘X’ who was away from his home for the last two years, requested his senior ‘Y’ for leave, which ‘Y’ refused. Annoyed at this, ‘X’ fired two shots at ‘Y’, one shot hitting ‘Y’ beneath the knee of the right leg as a result of which he fell down. ‘X’ fired another shot, which hit ‘Y’ at the upper left arm. ‘Y’ died after ten days. Discuss the liability of ‘X’.

Find the answer to the mains question only on Legal Bites. [An army Jawan ‘X’ who was away from his home for the last two years, requested his senior ‘Y’ for leave, which ‘Y’ refused. Annoyed at this, ‘X’ fired two shots at ‘Y’, one shot hitting ‘Y’ beneath the knee of the right leg as a result of which he fell down. ‘X’ fired another shot, which hit ‘Y’ at the upper left arm. ‘Y’ died after ten days. Discuss the liability of ‘X’.]

Answer

X is liable for culpable homicide amounting to murder under section 300, IPC. The act of X won’t come under Exception 1 to section 300 which deals with when culpable homicide is not murder. The first exception says that culpable homicide is not murder if the offender, whilst deprived of the power of self-control by grave and sudden provocation, causes the death of the person who gave the provocation or causes the death of any other person by mistake or accident.

The above exception is subject to certain provisos and two of the related to the present case are:

Secondly.—That the provocation is not given by anything done in obedience to the law, or by a public servant in the lawful exercise of the powers of such public servant.

Explanation.—Whether the provocation was grave and sudden enough to prevent the offense from amounting to murder is a question of fact.

Here, in the present case, X was denied leave by his senior Y under the lawful exercise of his powers as a public servant. The act of Y was in obedience to the law and the behavior of X was not proportionate to fall for grave and sudden provocation. So, the first exception is ousting with the jurisdiction here.

Secondly, there was no grave and sudden provocation as such that X was triggered to shot Y two times, when already with the first bullet he fell down on Knee, seeing that X fired another shot at his arm which clearly shows his intention to cause grievous hurt to Y. Y died after 10 days from this incidence but the square liability if of X who had both knowledge and intention to cause such grievous hurt to Y as is likely to cause his death. Hence X will be held liable for committing culpable homicide amounting to murder under section 300, IPC.

Culpable homicide is murder under section 300 r/w section 299, IPC, if it is done with:

1. intention to cause death; or
2. intention to cause bodily injury knowing that the injury caused is likely to cause death, or
3. the intention of causing bodily injury sufficient in the ordinary course of nature to cause death, or
4. the knowledge that the act is: (a) imminently dangerous that in all probability it will cause death or bodily injury which is likely to cause death, and (b) done without any justification for incurring the risk of causing death or the injury.

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