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Showing contexts for: murder section 300 in Ram Shanker vs State Of U.P. on 22 October, 2019Matching Fragments
25. Ld. Counsel for the appellants has also submitted that even if the prosecution case is taken to be established with regard to appellant Siya Ram, his act will not travel beyond the ambit of section 304 part II and according to him the trial Court has acted illegally in convicting him under section 302 IPC.
Hon'ble Supreme Court in Budhi Singh Vs. State of H.P. reported in MANU/SC/1126/2012 has held as under:-
"21. From the above conspectus, it emerges that whenever a court is confronted with the question whether the offence is "murder" or "culpable: homicide not amounting to murder", on the facts of a case, it will be convenient for it to approach the problem in three stages. The question to be considered at the first stage would be, whether the accused has done an act by doing which he has caused the death of another. Proof of such causal connection between the act of the accused and the death, leads to the second stage for considering whether that act of the accused amounts to "culpable homicide" as defined in Section 299. If the answer to this question is prima facie found in the affirmative, the stage for considering the operation of Section 300 of the Penal Code, is reached. This is the stage at which the court should determine whether the facts proved by the prosecution bring the case within the ambit of any of the four clauses of the definition of "murder" contained in Section 300. If the answer to this question is in the negative the offence would be "culpable homicide not amounting to murder", punishable under the first or the second part of Section 304, depending, respectively, on whether the second or the third clause of Section 299 is applicable. If this question is found in the positive, but the case comes within any of the exceptions enumerated in Section 300, the offence would still be "culpable homicide not amounting to murder", punishable under the first part of Section 304, of the Penal Code.
9. This brings us to the crucial question as to which was the appropriate provision to be applied. In the scheme of Indian Penal Code culpable homicide is the genus and "murder" its specie. All "murder" is "culpable homicide" but not vice versa. Speaking generally, "culpable homicide" sans "special characteristics of murder is culpable homicide not amounting to murder". For the purpose of fixing punishment, proportionate to the gravity of the generic offence, Indian Penal Code practically recognises three degrees of culpable homicide. The first is, what may be called, "culpable homicide of the first degree". This is the gravest form of culpable homicide, which is defined in Section 300 as "murder". The second may be termed as "culpable homicide of the second degree". This is punishable under the first part of Section 304. Then, there is "culpable homicide of the third degree". This is the lowest type of culpable homicide and the punishment provided for it is also the lowest among the punishments provided for the three grades. Culpable homicide of this degree is punishable under the second part of Section 304."