Judgment

JASWANT SINGH, J. :- This appeal by special leave is directed against the judgment and order dated October 12, 1973 of the High Court, Delhi confirming the judgment and order dated July 29, 1972 of the Additional Sessions Judge, Delhi convicting the appellant under S. 302 of the I. P. C. and sentencing him thereunder to imprisonment for life for causing the death of his wife.

2. Briefly stated, the circumstances giving rise to this appeal are : Attracted by the screams emanating from the house of the appellant situate in Basti Chain Sukh Das, Kala Mahal, Daryagani, Delhi on the afternoon of July 6, 1971, the neighbours namely Murari Lal (P. W. 4), Gulab Singh (P. W. 5) and one Kishan Lal rushed to the spot. On reaching the first floor of the house, they found the appellants wife named Kamla, aged 27 years, lying unconscious outside the living room in the courtyard with burns all over her body. Along with the appellant who was present there, they covered Kamla with a bed-sheet, put her on a cot and took her downstairs in the street where from she was removed in a tempo to Irwin Hospital, Delhi. At about 5.20 in the evening on that day, constable Baldev Singh (P. W. 7) posted on duty at the Emergency Ward of the said Hospital, rang up the Police Station, Jama Masjid, Delhi, informing it that the appellant had got his wife, Kamla, admitted in the emergency ward of the Hospital at about 4.15 or 4.30 P. M. because of some burns sustained by her at her house and requesting that some officer might be sent to the place of the occurrence. On receipt of this information, S. I. Din Dayal (P. W. 21) proceeded to the hospital accompanied by constable Raghubir Singh (P. W. 6). On being informed by the doctor on duty at the hospital that Kamla was unconscious and as such not in a fit condition to make a statement, the Sub-Inspector sent constable Raghubir Singh to the scene of occurrence with instructions to keep a watch over the same and himself remained in the Hospital waiting for an appropriate opportunity to record the statement of Kamla after her revival. He tried several times up to the midnight to have the permission of the doctor on duty to record the statement of Kamla but each time the doctor declared the patient unfit to make a statement. At 7.50 A. M. on the morning of July 7, 1971, the Sub-Inspector again repeated his request to the doctor on duty for permission to record the statement of Kamla but it was only at 10.50 A. M. that Dr. Avtar Singh Gill (P. W. 18) who was on duty at that time gave him the requisite permission which enabled him to record the statement (Exh. P. W. 21/F) of Kamla in the presence of the said doctor. This statement was to the following effect :-

"My husband sprinkled kerosene oil over me and set fire and when Iater on I had sufficiently been burnt he put a bucket full of water over me. It was about 1 p.m. and I had not quarrelled with my husband Jaswant Singh. I had asked him as to why he had come home late whereupon he got annoyed and beat me. After beating me he sprinkled kerosence oil over me and set fire to my clothes. At the time of setting fire to my clothes he had closed the door from inside."

3. After completing the necessary formalities, the Sub-Inspector sent Rooqa (Exh. P. W. 10/A) together with Kamlas aforesaid statement. (Exhibit P. W. 21/F) to his Police Station for registration of the case under S. 307 of the I. P. C. and himself left for the scene of the occurrence. Shortly after the departure of the Sub-Inspector the parents of Kamla namely Rosban (P. W. 1) and Phool Vati (P. W. 2) enquired of Kamla as to how she had sustained the burns on her body. In reply to their query, Kamla told them that the appellant did not come back to the house from his office on the evening of July 5, 1971 and spent the whole of the night intervening the 5th and 6th of July, 1971 in Shahdara; that on returning to the house on the morning of July 6, 1971, the appellant awakened her and asked her to prepa