# [1975] 3 S.C.R. 463

- **Citation:** [1975] 3 S.C.R. 463
- **Court:** Supreme Court of India
- **Decided:** 1975
- **Case number:** Criminal Appeal No. 22 of 1971
- **Bench:** M. H. Beg, A. Alagiriswami
- **Source:** https://unisonlegal.in/judgment/supreme-court-of-india/1975-3-s-c-r-463-6416
- **Pages:** 4

## Headnote

463
Indian Pe11al Code Section 302/149-Common objecr-Concurrent (t•1dings
of fac.t-Vicario11s liability of members of an 1111!awf11/ as~embly.
118 persons were prosecuted for participation in a serious riot. 5 a~cused
were. dis·charged by the Committing Magistrate. The Additional Sessions Judge
acquitted 61 accused and convicted 52 ur.der section 147 and sentenced
them
to 2 years' rigorous imprisonment. The appellant was held guilty under section
304p) read with 149. and sentenced to 5 years rigorous imprisonment,
under
sectlon 325 /149 sentenced. to 2 years rigorous impri;omnent and under section
323/149 sentenced to a month's rigorous imprisonment.
The convicted persons and the State filed appeal~ l)efore the High Court.
The High Court convicted 14 persons including the appellant and altered his
conviction under section 304/1/149 into 302/149 for the murder of 3 persons
and sentenced the appellant to life imprisonment.
The Learned Counsel for the appellant before this Court contended that the
appellant did not participate in the riot.
HELD : This Court is unable to disturb the concurTcnt findings of the two
courts below about appellant's participation in the riot. The High Court however, was wrong in holding that the common object of the unlawful :mcmbly was necessarily to cause death of three individuals. In a case like the present there were two factions; one of the oppressors :rnd the other of the oppressed, and the i11te·1tion of members of the oppressed faction could be initially,
to demonstrate quite lawfully.
The circumstances ,ho•ved that the appellant's
intention may have been confined to joining a procession for purposes of protest. If it is doubtful that the common object uf ti1e unlawful assembly was to
cause death, persons other than those who actually cominitted the acts resulting
in death could not be held vicariously liable for murder.
[464F-G; 564H466D]
.
[The judgment of the High Court as far as appellant is concerned was set
aside and that of the Sessions Court restored.]
[ 446G]

## Text

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SANTO SH
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THE STATE OF MADHYA PRADESH
Februafly 7, 1975
[M. H. BEG AND A. ALAGIRISWAMI, JJ.J
463
Indian Pe11al Code Section 302/149-Common objecr-Concurrent (t•1dings
of fac.t-Vicario11s liability of members of an 1111!awf11/ as~embly.
118 persons were prosecuted for participation in a serious riot. 5 a~cused
were. dis·charged by the Committing Magistrate. The Additional Sessions Judge
acquitted 61 accused and convicted 52 ur.der section 147 and sentenced
them
to 2 years' rigorous imprisonment. The appellant was held guilty under section
304p) read with 149. and sentenced to 5 years rigorous imprisonment,
under
sectlon 325 /149 sentenced. to 2 years rigorous impri;omnent and under section
323/149 sentenced to a month's rigorous imprisonment.
The convicted persons and the State filed appeal~ l)efore the High Court.
The High Court convicted 14 persons including the appellant and altered his
conviction under section 304/1/149 into 302/149 for the murder of 3 persons
and sentenced the appellant to life imprisonment.
The Learned Counsel for the appellant before this Court contended that the
appellant did not participate in the riot.
HELD : This Court is unable to disturb the concurTcnt findings of the two
courts below about appellant's participation in the riot. The High Court however, was wrong in holding that the common object of the unlawful :mcmbly was necessarily to cause death of three individuals. In a case like the present there were two factions; one of the oppressors :rnd the other of the oppressed, and the i11te·1tion of members of the oppressed faction could be initially,
to demonstrate quite lawfully.
The circumstances ,ho•ved that the appellant's
intention may have been confined to joining a procession for purposes of protest. If it is doubtful that the common object uf ti1e unlawful assembly was to
cause death, persons other than those who actually cominitted the acts resulting
in death could not be held vicariously liable for murder.
[464F-G; 564H466D]
.
[The judgment of the High Court as far as appellant is concerned was set
aside and that of the Sessions Court restored.]
[ 446G]
CRIMINAL APPELLATE JURISDICTION : Criminal Appeal No. 22 of
1971.
(Appeal by Special Leave from the Judgment & Order dated the
30th March, 1970 of the Madhya Pradesh High Court in Criminal
Appeal No. 536 of 1 %6).
P. P. Juneja for the app~llant.
Ram P1mjwa!!i and H. S. Parihar, for the respondent.
The Judgment of the Court was dctivcred by
BEG, J.
This is an appeal by special leave by one out of 118 persons wb') were prosecuted for participation in a serious riot on Augu>t l,
1965; in village Ganiari, Tehsil Bilaspur, in the State of Madhya Pm··
c1csh, as a result of which several persons were attacked with sharp
edged weapons and three of them died of wounds sustained by them.
Five •accused persons were discharged by the Committing Magistrate.
One hundred and thirteen persons were jointly tried for various offences punishable under Sections 147, 148, 302, 307, 325 and 323 Indian
Penal Code.
Charges were also alternatively framed under Section
464
SUPREME COURT REPORTS
[1975] 3 S.C.R.
302/149, 307/~49, 323/149 an~ 325/149 a¥ainst ~11 of them.
An
Additional Sess10ns' Judge of Bilaspur acquitted sixty one accused
persons and convicted fifty two persons. He found all the conv~~ted
persons guilty under Section 147 .P.C. and senrenced them to two
years rigorous imprisonment.
We need only mention the other convictions of the appellant before us. He was held guilty under Section
304(1 )/149 IPC and ·se.ntenced to five years rigorous imprisonrt1ent
and under Section 325/149 IPC and sentenced to t«'.o.lears rigoi:dus
impriSj)nment, and under Section 323/149 IPC and sentenced t1) a
month's rigorous imprisonment.
On appeals by the convicted persons as well as by the State Government, the High Court, while convicting only fourt~en persons, including the appellant, altered his conviction under section 304(1) /149
IPC into three convictions under Section 302/149 for the murder
of three persons Badlu, Santu, Chhote Bhurwa, but it m•ade the :;entences of life impriso•ament concurrent for the three offences. It m.t1intained the other convictions and sentences passed by the learned Ses-
:;ions' Judge.
learned Counsel for the appellant has tried to advance some
arguments to assail the conviction of the appellant for participation in
rioting.
But, we are not impressed by any of the criticisms levelled
against six witnesses relied upon by the Trial Court as well as the
High Court: Baliram, PW 1, Ganesh Rao, PW 2, Gangaram, PW 3,
Bade Bhurwa, PW 4, Kabra, PW 5, and Lulwa, PW 7. The unshaken
evidence of these witnesses had established that the appellant
had
participated in the riot, and chased the victims, and
even
inflicted
some minor injuiries on Baliram, PW 1.
But, beyond that, the participation of the appellant in the actual acts of cutting the limbs of the
three persons, who eventually died of profuse bleeding, was not deposed to by any prosecution witness.
Although we are un:able to disturb the concurrent finding of the
fact by the Trial Court and the High Court of the participation of the
appellant in the serious riot which took place on 1-8-1965 in village
Ganiari, we are alsn unable to concur with the view of the High Court
that o'.1 facts established, the common object of the unlawful assemblv was necessarily to cause the death of the three individuals who,
unfortunately, lost their lives as a result of the out-burse of frenzy of
•an outraged mob against persons who, according to the. learned Sessions·' Judge, had given c~use to the villagers to be seriously displeased
with their nefarious activities.
·
· !he learned Sess;ioas' Judge, while convicting the -appellant under
Sect::m 304 (l), had obs1~rved :
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"I . am inclined to take a lenient view of ·these klilings '
because the persons killed had become ·a nuisance to the
··'!lage community \Uid their crirrrtnal acts. knew oo houoo~
or rationali~y. A titne ~omes when even an orde!1y society'
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Tl?volts findr.ig no rellef m the regqlar course.
Thougli such
2:;t·; rrr;: riot permissible even in such cases and ranno1' be
c,~.:,uragi?d yet due discrmfrmtion was not lost sight·of bt
SANTOSH v. M. P. STATE (Beg, J.)
465
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the assailants and severe. penalty is thus not called for in the
present case.'
We do not consider these reasons of the learned Sessions Judge,
who had given them for convicting the appdlant togethel" with other
accused persons under Section 304 (I)/ 149 IPC and sentencing them
to five years' rigorous imprisoo,1ment, to be at all sound or relevant in
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justifying •a conviction under Section 304(1) /149 IPC.
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The learned Sessions' Judge had relied upon Kapur Singh v. State
of Pepsu('), to hold that, as injuries were inflicted upon the limbs of ·
the three men, who die4"of bleeding, but infliction of injuries on vital
parts of the body \"\'.~.s d6ilberately avoided, an intention of anybody to
murder was not established.
The learned Session's Judge appears to
have overlooked the vadous clauses of Section 300 IPC.
An intenC . tion to kill is not required in every case.
A knowledge that the natural
and probable consequences of an act would be death will suffice for
a conviction under· Section 302 IPC.
The question on whifb we entertain serious doubts, after examin-
. ·ing the natur~ of "the case 'and the relevant evidence on record is whether
the killing {)f -.arty" of the three men who died was within the common
dbject of the large number of persons who took part in the riot in
D , various w~ys in a fairly wide-spread area. It may well be that those
who actuall.y Inflicted the injuries on the three men who died could be
· . held Jiable for, causing death in a particularly cruel manner.
Th~ question, nevertheless, remains whether each of the large ,number of other
.: f~oters in the village, who took part in various ways in what appeared
"·to be an ,ipsqpge of r;esentmlcnt and hostility against a party three of
... which lost-' their lives,'..:.shared
the common object to kill th~m or to
E .'do acts w])ose: natural and probable results would be their 'deaths.
A refor~nce made to
Chikkarange Gowda & Ors. v. State
of
Mysoree), would show that each member of a mob needLnot bi:,neces-
' -sarily be lieldfliable for the actions of every other meinber of that: mob .
.-It may be. easier; in some respects, to prove a cominon '~eJ'· as a '
basis for a ~i~ri?us lia?il!ty under Se~tion _149 I.PC,' than t'O. f'St~blish
F :: a common 1htent10n w1thm the meaning of· Sect10n 34 IPC .. -' Nevertheless, as was 'Pointed out by this Coμrf in Chikkarange Gowda's
case (supra)~ the princ;:iplc h.as. been well r~_c·ogn.· ised, since the decision
in 1873 'in Queen v. Sabed Ali (3), that e~y offence which may be
committed by a merriber of an unlawful assembly will not be necessarily asceribed to or vicariously fastened upon every other member
~that assembly by using Section 149 IPC. The likelihood of causing
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of_ death by the nature of the actions of the members of the assembly
must be, sho\S{t! to be within the knowledge of a member who is to be
. made vicariously' liable for a death.
Such knowledge may be inferred
from the nature of the actions committed by others in ap unlawful
assembly Which the memb_er held vicariously liable continues to associate himself with ;;Iespite 'these actions seen by him or knowii to him,
In a case sucHs the one before us, in which there were two facH
tions in a village, one of~he oppressors and the other of the 0ppr<:ssed,
(I) AIR 1956 S.C. 654.
(2) AIR 1956 S.C. 73t.
(3) 20 Sut. W .. R. (Cr.) 5 (A).
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SUPREME COURT REPORTS
(1975] 3 S.C.R.
smarting under the pain of injuries i_nflicted by their oppressors, the
inte1ltion of a member of an assembly could be initially quite lawful.
His object may not go beyond joining a procession for purposes of
protest.
We are convinced, on the evidence on record, that the participation of the appellant before us went beyond exhibiting a mere
intention to protest. It not only embraced knowledge of likelihood of
hurt of some kind to members of the party attacked, but it includ·~d
an attack by the appellant on Baliram, PW 1.
The nature of that
attack was, however. relatively mild.
At most, from the concerted
action of so 'many men a member of the unlawful assembly, on th('.
facts and circumstances of the case before us, could be
reasonably
held to be aware that grievous hurt would result.
After examining all the evid·~nce relating to the participation of
the appellant and others in the riot we are left in grave doubt whe-
. ther the assembly had a common object of killing any one at all,
even if such was really the object of any particular member or members of the unlawful assembly.
It may be that those who cut the
limbs of men who lost their lives due to bleeding could reasonably be
held liable for murder.
But, it seems to be unlikely that each member,
considering the nature of the riot and the different acts of different
members of the riotous assembly, had such an object.
This
was
exactly the view adopted by this Court in Chikkarange Gowda's case
(supra).
As we are doubtful whether the appellant could be held guilty of
participation in an unlawful assembly which had the common object
of kiiling or even maiming the three men who lost their lives, we think
that the appellant could not be convicted under Section 302/149 IPC.
We also think that the learned Sessions' Judge was in error in holding
that th.~ appellant could be convicted under Section 304(1) /149 IPC.
For a conviction under Section 304( 1) IPC., it has to be shown that
the case of the convicted person falls within one of the five Exceptions found in Section 300 IPC.
It is obvious that the case of the
appellant does not fall under
any of these
Exceptions. If it
is
doubtful whether the com111on object of the unlawful assembly joined
by the appellant was to commit any acts which were either intended
to cause death, or, froin which knowledg:c of likelihood of death could
be inferred, we think that persons othetthan those who actually committed the ~cts resulting in death could not be held vicariously liable
for murder.
The result is that we allow this appeal to the extent that we set
aside the convictions
and sentences of the
appellant under Section
3C.2/149 IPC.
We maintained his convictions and sentences under
Section 147, 323/149 and 325/149 IPC.
Subject to the modification
indicated here this appeal is dismiss.ed.
We understand that the appellant has already undergone imprisunment longer than the longest one
imposed for the convictions sustained by us.
We therefore, ctirect
that he be released forthwith unless wanted in some other connection.
PH.P.
Agpea/ allowed.
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