Chapter XVI IPC Section 299 - 304

 

Chapter XVI of IPC 1860

Sections 299 – 377

Section 299: Culpable Homicide not amounting to Murder

Culpable Homicide is composed of two words where culpable mean blamable and homicide means killing of human being by a human being. Homicide is a Latin term where homa (man) and cide (I cut), two words and joined together. IPC has defined “life” under section 45 and “death” under section 46 where death means death of human being. Hence causing death of an animal is not defined as homicide.

Kinds of Homicide:

Homicide can be defined as:

(i)                 Lawful Homicide: It includes the cases falling under the General Exceptions which are mentioned under sections 76 to 106 of the IPC.

(ii)               Unlawful Homicide: These are mentioned under sections 299 – 318 and can be categorized as:

(a)    Culpable Homicide Not Amounting to Murder (Section 299)

(b)   Murder (Section 300)

(c)    Culpable Homicide by Causing death of person other than person whose death was intended (Section 301)

(d)   Rash or Negligent Homicide (Section 304A)

Culpable Homicide Not Amounting to Murder:

Section 299 defines culpable homicide as:

Whosoever causes: What?

Answer: Death

How?

Answer: By doing an act?

Details:

With the intention of causing death or such bodily injury as is likely to cause death

Any other details:

With the knowledge that he is likely, by such act, to cause death commits “culpable homicide”. For example:

(a)    A lays sticks and turf over a pit with the intention of thereby causing death, or with the knowledge that death is likely to be thereby caused. Z, believing the ground to be firm, treads on it, falls in and is killed; A has committed the offence of culpable homicide.

Reason of including it in culpable homicide:

A had the intention to kill Z, the Knowledge that his act is likely to cause death, makes all the difference. If his act was certain to cause death, A would have been guilty of murder. It is the likelihood to cause death that reduces the offence to culpable homicide not amounting to murder.

(b)   A knows Z to be behind the bush, B does not know it. A, intending to cause, or knowing it to be likely to cause Z’s death, induces B to fire at the bush. B fires and kills Z. Here, B may be guilty of no offence; but A has committed the offence of culpable homicide.

(c)    A by shooting at a fowl with intent to kill and steal it, kills B, who is behind a bush, A not knowing that he was there. Here, although A was doing an unlawful act, he is not guilty of culpable homicide, as he did not intend to kill B, or cause death by doing an act that he knew likely to cause death

There are three explanations to the culpable homicide –

Explanation – 1. A person causes bodily injury to another who is laboring under a disorder, disease or bodily infirmity, and thereby accelerates the death of that other, is deemed to have “caused” his death.

Explanation – 2. When death is caused by bodily injury the person who causes such bodily injury is deemed to have “caused” the death, although by resorting to proper remedies and skillful treatment, the death might have been prevented.

Explanation – 3. The causing of the death of a child in the mother’s womb is not homicide. But it may amount to culpable homicide to cause the death of a living child if any part of that child has been brought forth, though the child may not have breathed or been completely born.

Section 300

Culpable homicide is murder if –

(1)   The act by which the death is caused is done with the intention of causing

(a)    Death; or

(b)   Such bodily injury which shows that offender knows to be likely to cause the death of the person to whom the harm is caused, or it is sufficient, in the ordinary course of nature, to cause death

(2)    The offender knows that the act by which the death is caused is so imminently dangerous that it must, in all probability, cause

(a)    Death; or

(b)   Such bodily injury as is likely to cause death and commits such act without any excuse for incurring the risk thereof

It will be seen that all murder are culpable homicide, but all culpable homicide are not murder.

Exceptions of Murder under Section 300 IPC –

A.     Grave and Sudden Provocation: 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 provoked – provided that the provocation is not sought or voluntarily provoked as an excuse for killing or doing harm or is not given by anything done in the obedience to the law; or by a public servant in the lawful exercise of his powers, or in the lawful exercise of the right of private defense.

Note: whether the provocation was grave and sudden enough to prevent an offence from amounting to murder is a question of fact

B.     Exceeding the right of private defense: Culpable homicide is not murder if the offender, in the exercise in good faith of right of private defense, exceeds the legal limit and causes the death of the person without pre-mediation and without any intention of doing more harm than necessary

C.     Public Servant Exceeding his powers: Culpable homicide is not murder if the offender, a public servant (or the person aiding a public servant), exceeds his legal powers and causes death by an act believed by him, in good faith, to be lawful and necessary for the due discharge of his duty and without ill-will towards the person killed.

D.     Sudden Fight: Culpable homicide is not murder if it is committed:

(i)                 Without premeditation

(ii)               In a sudden fight

(iii)             In the heat of passion

(iv)             Upon a sudden quarrel, and

(v)               Without taking undue advantage or acting in a cruel manner.

E.      Death Caused with Victims Consent: Culpable homicide is not murder if the person killed (being above eighteen years of age) suffers death (or takes the risk of death) with his own consent

 

Distinction between Culpable Homicide and Murder was considered and stated by Justice Melvill in Reg. V/S Govinda, 1876 1 Bom. 342

Section 301

Culpable Homicide by causing death of person other than person whose death was intended: If a person, by doing anything which he intends or knows to be likely cause death, commits culpable homicide by causing death of any person, whose death he neither intends nor knows himself to be likely to cause, the culpable homicide committed by the offender is of the description of which it would have been if he had caused the death of the person whose death he intended or knew himself to be likely to cause.

Section 302

Punishment for Murder: Punishment with death sentence or imprisonment for life, and shall also be liable to fine.

Section 303

Punishment for Murder by Life-Convict: Whoever being under sentence of imprisonment for life, commits murder shall be punished with death sentence.

Section 304

Punishment for Culpable Homicide not amounting to Murder: Punished with imprisonment for life, or imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to 10 years, and shall also be liable to fine, if the act by which the death is caused is done with the intention of causing death or of causing such bodily of injury as is likely to cause death.

Section 304A Causing Death by Negligence:

Not amounting to culpable homicide shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to 2 years or with fine or with both.

Section 304B

Dowry Death

Video Lecture:

https://youtu.be/wYGfIT2G5Nc

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