Judgment

A. D. KOSHAL, J.:- Special Leave granted.

The appellant has been convicted of an offence under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code (hereinafter referred to as the Code) for causing the death of one Anta, and has been sentenced to imprisonment for life by the trial court as well as in appeal by the High Court.

2. The case of the prosecution was that the appellant attacked the deceased with a knife giving the latter a single blow above the left clavicle where it caused a muscle-deep incised wound having the dimensions 1 1/4"X1/3". The autopsy surgeon, while certifying the existence of that wound, also found that the superior venacava had been cut, the damage so caused being sufficient in the ordinary course of nature to cause death.

3. The learned counsel for the appellant has contended that the case does not fall within the ambit of Section 302 of the Code and that the two courts below erred in relying on Virsa Singh v. State of Punjab, AIR 1958 SC 465. The gist of the dictum of this court in that case is that if an injury is held to have been intended by the assailant and is further found to be sufficient in the ordinary course of nature to cause death, it would attract claus