In cases of sudden altercations without premeditation, convictions may be reduced from murder to culpable homicide.

HON'BLE SHRI JUSTICE AVANINDRA KUMAR SINGH ON THE 28^th OF AUGUST, 2025 CRIMINAL APPEAL No. 7465 of 2024 BABULAL Versus THE STATE OF MADHYA PRADESH Appearance:

Shri Sandeep Kumar Mishra - Advocate for the appellant.

Shri Ajay Tamrkar - Government Advocate appearing on behalf of Advocate General.

J U D G M E N T Per: Justice Vivek Agarwal At the outset, learned counsel for the appellant prays for withdrawal of I.A. No. 15805/2024, first application under Section 389 (1) of Cr.P.C. for suspension of remaining jail sentence and grant of bail.

Accordingly, I.A. No. 15805/2024 is dismissed as withdrawn.

With the consent of learned counsel for the parties, this case is heard finally at motion stage.

The appellant is aggrieved of judgment dated 11.6.2024 passed by learned Second Additional Sessions Judge, Rehali, district Sagar, (M.P.)

Signature Not Verified Signed by: BASANT KUMAR in S.T. No.40 of 2019, whereby learned trial court has convicted and sentenced the appellant- Babulal, son of Heeralal Patel as under :-

2. It is submitted that the appellant is innocent. He has been made an accused on the basis of his memorandum under Section 27 of the Evidence Act as contained in Ex.P-8. According to the memorandum, deceased-Bhagwandas Patel was brother-in-law of the present appellant. Both Bhagwandas Patel and the present appellant - Babulal, accompanied with wife- Anita Patel travelled to village Mahuwa Semara in a bus to attend a marriage of daughter of their Moushi. They had procured two quarters of country made liquor which they had consumed while sitting behind the house of the host. Thereafter they had taken their food in the Mandap. Bhagwandas Patel asked for more liquor but when the present appellant denied then Bhagwandas procured three more quarters of country made liquor and they started drinking together. Bhawandas was insistent but Babulal was reluctant to drink more. On this, a small altercation took place when Bhagwandas started abusing, on which Babulal being provoked picked up a stick lying in the vicinity Signature Not Verified Signed by: BASANT KUMAR and had caused injuries to Bhagwandas. Thus, it is submitted that at most this case will be under Section 304-II of IPC as there was no pre- planning, no motive. Incident took place at the spur of moment thus, the case will fall under fourth exception to Section 300 of IPC .

3. Shri Ajay Tamrakar, learned Public Prosecutor for the State of M.P. in his turn supports the impugned judgment and submits that a bamboo stick was recovered at the instance of the present appellant and that corroborates the memorandum (Ex.P-8). It is submitted that Dr. Basant Nema (PW-8), who had done postmortem of the deceased had opined that said injuries could have been caused with the said stick.

However, it is admitted that there is no F.S.L. report.

4. After hearing learned counsel for the parties and going through the record when facts of the present case are taken into consideration, then in the light of the judgement rendered by Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of Kariman Vs. State of Chhattigarh reported in 2024 SCC OnLine SC 607 and in the case of Chaitu and others Vs. State of U.P. reported in 2014 (11) SCC 218, in a case of sudden fight, when there was no motive, no pre-planning, no undue advantage of the weakness of the victim was taken by the assailant, case will fall under Section 304-II of IPC and accordingly we alter the conviction of the appellant from one under Section 302 of IPC to Section 304-II of IPC . Accordingly, we direct that the appellant shall undergo R.I. for seven years with fine of Rs.5000/- with default stipulation of six months R.I.

Signature Not Verified Signed by: BASANT KUMAR

5. The appeal is dispos