New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday modified a murder conviction of a woman accused of killing her husband to that of culpable homicide not amounting to murder, saying that possibility of the wife causing the death of the husband while being deprived of the power of self-control, due to the provocation on account of the deceased not agreeing to pay Rs 500 to their daughter, cannot be ruled out.
A bench of Justices BR Gavai and JB Pardiwala said, “It is to be noted that the weapon used in the crime is a stick, which was lying in the house, and which, by no means, can be called a deadly weapon”. The bench said, “Therefore, the possibility of the appellant causing the death of the man while being deprived of the power of self-control, due to the provocation on account of the deceased not agreeing to pay Rs 500 to witness 1 (daughter), cannot be ruled out”.
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The top court judgment came on a plea filed by Nirmala Devi, who was accused of beating her husband to death during a quarrel on May 26, 2015, challenging the judgment passed by the Himachal Pradesh High Court in May 2022. The High Court upheld the trial court judgment, which convicted the woman for the offences punishable under Sections 302 and 201 of the IPC and sentenced her to undergo imprisonment for life.
The apex court reduced the jail sentence of the wife from life imprisonment to the period of imprisonment already undergone (nine years). The top court said even after careful scrutiny of the testimony of the daughter, “We find that it will be difficult to sustain a conviction under Section 302 of the IPC”. “If the testimony of witness 1 is read as a whole, it would reveal that her father and mother often quarrelled. Witness 1, in her evidence, has stated that the deceased Mast Ram fractured the leg of her mother during such quarrels, and a criminal case was also pending against him for the said offence”, said the top court.
The bench observed that her testimony would show that her father was residing separately in the old house whereas she, her mother and sibling were residing separately. The woman was accused of beating her husband with a stick after her daughter complained that he did not give her Rs 500 to join a National Cadet Corps (NCC) camp. “A quarrel started between her father and mother. Her mother gave blows with a stick to the head and legs of her father. Her father sustained injuries, which led to his death”, said the bench.
Reducing the woman’s sentence, the bench said, “There used to be persistent quarrels between the deceased and the appellant. In one of such incidents, the leg of the appellant was fractured by the deceased, and a case was already pending against him for the said offence”. Concluding the judgment, the bench said the conviction of the appellant is altered from Section 302 of the IPC to Part-I of Section 304 of the IPC. “The appellant has already been incarcerated for a period of almost nine years, and, therefore, we find that the sentence already undergone would serve the ends of justice. The bail bonds of the appellant shall also stand discharged”, it said.
