JUDGMENT :

Amit Borkar, J.

1. Heard.

2. RULE. Rule made returnable forthwith.

3. By this Application under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the Applicant is challenging registration of the F.I.R. No. 448/2019 registered with the Non-Applicant No. 1 – Police Station for the offences punishable under Sections 304-A (later converted to 304) & 34 of the Indian Penal Code.

4. The first information report came to be registered against the Applicant and her husband with the accusations that the Applicant and her husband had engaged the services of the son of the Non-Applicant No. 2 for construction work without obtaining the necessary permission from the Electricity Board and Municipal Corporation resulting into the death of his son. It is alleged that the Applicant was aware of the fact that there were high tension electric wires but had not obtained the permission of the Electricity Board for carrying out the construction, and therefore the Applicant and her husband are responsible for the death of the son of the Non-Applicant No. 2.

5. The Applicant has therefore challenged the registration of the first information report by filing the present application. By the order dated 30/04/2019, this Court issued notice to the Non-Applicants and by way of the interim order, directed the Investigating Agency not to file a charge-sheet against the Applicant without leave of leave this Court. The Non-Applicant No. 1 - Investigating Agency, in pursuance of the notice issued by this Court, has filed a reply stating that the evidence collected by the Investigating Agency prima-facie shows the fulfillment of the ingredients of the offence alleged against the Applicant. It is stated that earlier, the offence was registered as Section 304-A inadvertently, but thereafter it was corrected to Section 304.

6. The Non-Applicant No. 2 also filed reply stating that the Applicant and her husband had engaged the services of the son of the Non-Applicant No. 2 for carrying out the construction work and had not obtained permission from the Electricity Board and therefore the ingredients of the offence under Section 304 of the Indian Penal Code are fulfilled.

7. We have carefully considered the allegations in the first information report and the reply filed by the Non-Applicants.

8. Before Section 304 can be invoked, the following ingredients must be satisfied :-

“(i) the death of the person must have been caused;

(ii) such death must have been caused by the act of the accused by causing bodily injury;

(iii) there must be an intention on the part of the accused:

(a) to cause death; or

(b) to cause such bodily injury which is likely to cause death (Part I);

(iv) there must be knowledge on the part of the accused that the bodily injury is such that it is likely to cause death (Part II).”

9. Section 304-A was inserted by the Penal Code (Amendment) Act, 1870 (Act 27 of 1870) and reads thus :

“304-A. Causing death by negligence.—Whoever causes the death of any person by doing any rash or negligent act not amounting to culpable homicide, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to two years, or with fine, or with both.”

10. The Section deals with homicidal death by rash or negligent acts. It is applicable for offences outside the purview of Sections 299 and 300 of the Indian Penal Code and includes the cases where death has been caused without intention or knowledge. The words “not amounting to culpable homicide” in the Section clearly postulate that the Section seeks to include those cases where there is neither intention to cause death nor knowledge that the act done will result in death. The said provision applies to acts that are rash or negligent and are directly the cause of death of another person.

11. It needs to be noted that Section 304-A applies to cases where death is caused by a rash or negligent act that does not amount to culpable homicide, not amounting to murder within the meaning of Section 299 or culpable hom