Judgement

Appeal (No. 32 of 1945), by special leave, from a judgment and order of the Chief Court (May 5, 1944) varying as to sentence only an order of the Sessions Judge at Lucknow (January 10, 1944) by which the appellant was found guilty of the offence of culpable homicide not amounting to murder of one Bilasia, his wifes bandi maidservant, under para. 2 of s. 304 of the Indian Penal Code, and was sentenced to six years rigorous imprisonment, which, by the above variation, was reduced to a period of about four months, which the appellant had already served.

The following facts are taken from the judgment of the Judicial Committee. The prosecution case was that on May 26, 1943, in the appellants house at Lucknow, Bilasia had been found in compromising circumstances with the appellants bearer, one Samuel, and that on that fact being reported to the appellant on his return from his office at about 7.30 p.m. he gave Bilasia a beating. The prosecution suggested that it was a very severe beating and that it reduced the girl to the point of death. At about

8.30 p.m. the appellant went out to dinner with a friend, and returned at about midnight, and the prosecution alleged that by that