A Criminal law governs crimes, including felonies and misdemeanors. Crimes are generally referred to as offenses against the state. The standard of proof for crimes is beyond a reasonable doubt. For information on particular crimes or issues surrounding the criminal law, please select from one of t...
a. Outraging the Modesty of Women, Voyeurism, Stalking, Acid Attack
b. Rape and Unnatural Offences
c. Cruelty and Offences relating to Marriage
Unit-IV: Offences against Property
a. Theft, Extortion, Robbery and Dacoity
b. Criminal Misappropriation and Criminal Breach of Trust
c. Cheating and Forgery
d. Mischief
,Unit - I Offences affecting the Human body
a. Culpable Homicide and Murder
Culpable Homicide
The word homicide is derived from two Latin words - homo and cido. Homo means human and
cido means killing by a human. Homicide means killing of a human being by another human
being. A homicide can be lawful or unlawful. Lawful homicide includes situations where a
person who has caused the death of another cannot be blamed for his death. For example, in
exercising the right of private defence or in other situations explained in Chapter IV of Indian
Penal Code covering General Exceptions. Unlawful homicide means where the killing of another
human is not approved or justified by law. Culpable Homicide is in this category. Culpable
means blame worthy. Thus, Culpable Homicide means killing of a human being by another
human being in a blameworthy or criminal manner.
Culpable Homicide is defined in Section 299 of the IPC. If you study the definition you shall
find that the definition stresses both on the physical and mental element, where an act is
committed which is done with the intention of causing death, or with such knowledge that the act
which he or she is going to undertake is going to kill someone, or causes such bodily or physical
injury which will lead to a person's death. Also read the explanations to the Section which are
actually clarifications to the Section.
Explanation One: Tells us that where knowingly a person accelerates someone's death in such as
situation it is considered culpable homicide.
Example: Y is diagnosed with terminal illness and needs certain drugs to live from day to day. X
confines him in a room and denies him his medication as a result of which Y dies. X is guilty of
Culpable Homicide.
Explanation Two: Tells us that where a person inflicts such bodily injury on someone and the
latter dies because of such injury, it will not be an excuse that if the person had received medical
attention his life would have been saved.
Example: Ganda mows over a pedestrian deliberately. The pedestrian bleeds on the road and no
one helps him and he dies as a result of Ganda's actions. Ganda cannot take the excuse that if the
,pedestrian had taken medical treatment at the right time, the pedestrian would have lived and
there would be no culpable homicide
Explanation Three: Tells us that abortion does not constitute culpable homicide. However if any
part of the child is outside the womb, and the child is then killed, it constitutes culpable
homicide. A word of caution, however, infanticide and abortion on the basis that the womb is
bearing a female child is a criminal offence in India. Culpable Homicide can happen by
commission or by omission, i.e. by an overt or conscious act or failure to act, by which a person
is, deprived of his/her life. Now let us study the ingredients in detail.
Ingredients
a) Acts
The Act should be of such a nature that it would put to peril someone's life or damage someone's
life to such an extent that the person would die. In most cases the act would involve a high
degree of violence against the person. Instances such stabbing a person in vital organs, shooting
someone at point blank range, administering poison would include instances which would
constitute culpable homicide.
However this is not always the rule and there are exceptions to this rule. Remember the section
says "causes death by doing an act", so given the special circumstances certain acts which may
not involve extreme degree of violence, but may be sufficient to cause someone's death. For
example, starving someone may not require violence in the normal usage of the term, but may
cause a person' s death. The Section also covers administration of bodily injury which is "likely"
to cause death.
Causing death:
The very first test to decide whether a particular act or omission would be covered by the
definition of culpable homicide is to verify whether the act done by an accused has ‘caused’ the
death of another person. ‘Death’ means the death of a human being. But the word ‘death’ does
not include the death of an unborn child. It is immaterial if the person whose death has been
caused not the very person whom the accused intended to kill. The offence is complete as soon
as any person is killed.
, By doing an act:
Death may be caused in a number of ways; such as by poisoning, starving, striking, drowning or
communicating some shocking news and by a hundred different ways. ‘Act’, here includes
‘illegal omission’ also.
The word ‘illegal’ is applicable to everything which is an offence or which is prohibited by law,
or which furnishes ground for a civil action. Therefore, death caused by illegal omission will
amount to culpable homicide.
b) Intention
Sometimes one is required to do certain dangerous acts, even in everyday life where there is a
risk of death or causing hurt to such an extent that a person may die. Mundane things such as
driving possess the potential of taking someone's life. The question however is was the act
committed with the "intention of causing death". Thus where you push someone for a joke and
the person falls on his head has a brain injury and dies, there was no "intention of causingdeath"
but when you pushed the person deliberately with the idea that the person falls and dies, in that
case the act is with the "intention of causing death"
To prove intention in acts where there is bodily injury is "likely to cause death", the act has to be
can be of two types. Firstly where bodily injury itself is done in a fashion which cause death.For
example bludgeoning someone on the head repeatedly with a blunt instrument.
Secondly in situations where there are injuries and there are intervening events between the
injuries and the death provided the delay is not so blatant, one needs to prove that injuries were
administered with the intention of causing death.
c) Knowledge
Knowledge is different from intention to the extent that where a person may not have the
intention to commit an act which kills, he knows that the act which he commits will take
someone's life or is likely to take someone's life will be considered having the "knowledge that he
is likely by such act to cause death". For example, a doctor uses an infected syringe knowingly
on a patient thereby infecting him with a terminal disease. The act by itself will not cause death,
but the doctor has knowledge that his actions will lead to someone's death.
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