The court ruled that a defendant's claim of mental illness must meet the standard of legal insanity, with no relief unless it can be proven that they lacked understanding of their actions during the crime.

JUDGMENT:

(Ritu Bahri, CJ.) :

The appellant-Harmeet Singh has come up in appeal against the judgment and order dated 04/05.10.2021, whereby he has been convicted for the offence punishable under Sections 302 , 307 and 316 IPC. He has been awarded death sentence also directed to pay fine of Rs. 50,000 under Section 302 IPC. Aforesaid convict has been further convicted under Section 307 IPC and sentenced to imprisonment for 10 years and also directed to pay fine of Rs 25,000/-and also convicted under Section 316 IPC and sentenced to imprisonment for 10 years and also directed to pay fine of Rs 25,000/-.

2. Learned counsel for the appellant, at the outset, does not want to challenge the judgment rendered by the Trial Court on merits. The appellant has committed the murder. She has stated that there were sufficient evidence to prove that the appellant had committed the murder of Jai Singh (father of the accused), Ms. Kulwant Kaur (step mother of the accused), Ms. Harjeet Kaur (adopted daughter of Jai Singh), and Ms. Sukhmani (daughter of Ms. Harjeet Kaur).

3. Briefly, the facts of the case are that it was Diwali festival in 2014. At that time, Ms. Harjeet Kaur was 8-9 months pregnant and had come to the house of Jai Singh along with her son Kanwal and daughter Sukhmani. On the night of Diwali, everyone burst crackers and slept.

4. On 24.10.2014, at around 10:30 AM, P.W.3 Raji Devi informed P.W.1 Ajit Singh, who lodged the First Information Report, that Harmeet Singh (accused) was not opening the gate and was refusing to let her do the household work. P.W.1 Ajit Singh called his uncle Jai Singh, and on the insistence of P.W.1 Ajit Singh, the accused Harmeet Singh opened the gate and P.W.3 Raji Devi went inside the house to work, and came out screaming “khoon khoon”. After hearing the screaming of P.W.3 Raji Devi, P.W.1 Ajit Singh and his wife went inside the house of Jai Singh, and they found Ms. Kulwant Kaur and Ms. Harjeet Kaur were lying dead, soaked in blood, in the bedroom adjacent to the lobby. The dead body of the little girl Sukhmani was lying on the bed, drenched in blood. Blood soaked body of Jai Singh was lying face down on the floor in the room of the accused Harmeet Singh. The accused Harmeet Singh was standing there and P.W.4 Kanwal come from behind Harmeet Singh in an injured state. P.W.1 Ajit Singh picked up Kanwal and informed about the incident on 100 and 108 from his mobile. On being asked, the victim Kanwal told P.W.1 Ajit Singh that Harmeet uncle (accused) killed his maternal grandfather (Jai Singh), maternal grandmother (Ms. Kulwant Kaur), mother (Ms. Harjeet Kaur) and sister Sukhmani, and also stabbed him from behind.

5. After registration of FIR (Exhibit A-9), tehrir (Exhibit A-1) was submitted at P.S. Cantt on 24.10.2014 at 11:45 AM. Investigating Officer P.W.21 Vinod Kumar Jetha went to the spot of incident and took possession of some blood from the blood clots spread on the floor and a piece of blood stained bedsheet, sofa cloth, and pillow cover and prepared memo as Exhibit A-52, Exhibit A-54 respectively. Accused Ha