This is an appeal under section 379 CrPC read with section 2 of the Supreme Court (Enlargement of Criminal Appellate Jurisdiction) Act, 1970. The sole accused is the appellant before us. He was tried for an offence punishable under section 302 IPC. The gravamen of the charge was that on the night of July 9, 1978 at midnight he poured kerosene oil on Bai Gauri, the deceased in this case and set fire as a result of which she died on the next day. The case rested mainly on the dying declarations recorded by the doctor and the Magistrate. The learned Sessions Judge was not prepared to act upon the dying declarations and accordingly acquitted the appellant. The State preferred an appeal. The High Court allowed the appeal and convicted the appellant under section 302 IPC and sentenced him to undergo imprisonment for life. Hence the present appeal.

Learned counsel for the appellant submitted that the deceased had serious bums on her and it would not have been possible for her to make dying declarations and that PW 2 the doctor who recorded the first dying declaration has not truly recorded the same in the words of the deceased and that his evidence itself shows that the deceased would not have been in a position to make the declaration. It is also his submission that PW 3 the Executive Magistrate who recorded the second dying declaration did not record the same in the form of questions and answers and the statement recorded by him cannot be taken to be the true version alleged to have been given by the deceased.

The deceased aged about 40 years was the widow of one Savaji and was living in a wooden cabin near the maternity hospital in Harij and she was maintaining herself by doing casual work in the maternity hospital. She developed illicit intimacy with the accused. Her grown-up children were dissatisfied with her character and other members of her community were also dissatisfied. Since then she was living alone in the wooden cabin near the maternity hospital. There was some quarrel between the accused and the deceased. At about midnight on July 9, 1978 the accused went to her cabin and sprinkled kerosene oil on her and set fire to her clothes and then fled. The deceased ran from her cabin inside the compound of the maternity hospital raising cries. One Patavala Motibhai came there and put a quilt on her body. The said Patavala Motibhai went and informed the Medical Officer, PW 2 of the Government Hospital who immediately ran to the spot and separated the burnt clothes from her body and gave first aid. He questioned as to who had set fire and the deceased replied that the accused was the culprit. PW 2 recorded her statement which is the first dying declaration in the case. PW 2 shifted her to the hospital and he himself went to the police station and gave a report. The police Jamadar also recorded her statement in the hospital which is yet another dying declaration in the case. By that time information was sent to the Taluka Magistrate with a request to record the dying declaration. PW 3, the Taluka Magistrate went to the spot and he also recorded the dying declaration. The deceased died in the early morning of July 10, 1978. Inquest was held over the dead body and post-mortem was conducted by PW 2. The learned Sessions Judge, in our view, has unnecessarily doubted the veracity of PW 2, the doctor. He observed that the moment the flames had been seen by the deceased on her person she must have received a severe shock and the same must have become "graver and graver" and in that state of mind it is not believeable at all that the deceased could keep balance of her mind and full consciousness so as to make the statement. With this initial doubt the learned Sessions Judge proceeded to examine the evidence of the doctor. The doctor stated that in some cases mental shock immediately does not develop and that in the instant case the deceased developed the mental shock for the first time at 4 a.m. Thereafter it gradually incre