The Apex Court on 23.04.2019,  in Nagji Odhavji Kumbhar & Anr. v State of Gujarat ,’s order that maintained the conviction of the appellants under Sections 302 and 324 of IPC .

FACTS:

The appellants while causing grave injuries to the victims had led to the death of the victims on that very moment .After an FIR was lodged the appellants were taken behind the bar. A civil suit was filed by the complainant wherein injunction had been granted favoring them. Subsequently, a cross case was fled at the Sessions Court by the appellants. The appellants were convicted under Section 302 however, no punishment had been separately been inflicted under Section 324 IPC.

CONTENTIONS RAISED FROM THE PART OF THE APPELLANTS:

It had been contended that the actual aggressors were the victims and their accomplishes and that injuries had been succumbed by the  appellants as well while in the process of defending their possession in the disputed land and the act was purely a heat of the moment and  in exercise of their right to private defense and hence the conviction made under Section 302 read with Section 34 IPC is not fit to sustained rather a case   under Section 304 (Part II) is likely to have been made out and in that context, imprisonment of eleven years have already been faced by the appellants while if  the appellants are to convicted under Section 304(Part II), they are entitled of being released after the completion of ten years as per Section 304(Part II).

PROSECUTION’s VERSION:

The prosecution contested that there had been no trace of evidence that victims had been armed and hence the right to private defense cannot be made accessible when the alleged assailants do not poses arms. Also, regarding the Right  of private defense, a person can not cause any harm that is more than required for protecting him or his property, followed by the Post-Mortem report that supports the oral testimony regarding the receiving of stab wounds by the   deceased while the presence of sp many stab wounds upon the victims body clearly depicts that such an act can in no way take place at the heat of the moment.

DECISION RENDERED BY THE APEX COURT:

The Apex Court while dismissing the appeal held that the number of stab wounds inflicted upon the body of the dead persons reflected that the act committed by the appellants were not something that had taken place in the moment and that the decision of the lower Courts had been aptly justified   for the conviction and sentencing the appellants under Section 302 IPC.

Read Full Judgment here:

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