JAI LAL versus DELHI ADMINISTRATION

JAi LAL

DELHI ADMINISTRATION

April 30, 1968

[R. S. BACHAWAT AND A. N. GROVER, JJ.]

Indian Penal Code, 1860 s. 84--Scope of.

From 1958 the appellant was Railway employee and often lost his temper and had altercations with other clerks in the office. In October 1960 he was found to be suffering from mental illness as he exhibited >ymptoms of acute schizophrenia and showed disorder of thought, emo-lion and perception of external realities. He was treated for and was cured of .:his illness by July 1961 when he resumed his duties. On the morning of November 25, he went to offiee as usual but as he was late in attendance. he was marked absent. He applied ii> writing for one day's casual leave and returned home. No one noticed any symptoms of any mental disorder at that time. Just af.ter 1 o"clock he entered his ncighbour's hou'e and stabbed and killed girl year old and later also stabbed and injured two other persons v.ith knife. -He was thereafter arrested and interrogated on the satne day when ho gave normal and intelligent ansy,·crs. Aftcr his arn.-st and upon medical examination. the appellant was declared to be lunatic though not violent and the psy-chiatrist found that be bad had relapse of schizophrenia. On September 6, 1962, he wa.• reported a.• cured and was thereafter committed for trio! in February 1963. The trial court comicted him under ss. 302 and 32~ of the Indian Penal Code and sentenced him to life imprisonment. During the trial and in the subsequent appeal :o the High Court, the defence pica was one of insanity which was concurrently rejected by both Courts.

On appeal to this Court by special leave.

HELD ; dismissing the appeal :

The appellant wa.s not insane at the time of the killin~ and stabbing and knew the consequences of his acts. He must therefore be held criminally responsible for his acts. [ 144 in

To establish that the acts done were not offences under s. 84 it must be proved clearly that at the time of the commission of the acts the appel-lant. by reason of unsoundness of mind, was incapable of knowing that the acts were either morally \VTOng or contrary to la\\'. There was clear evi-dence that on the morning of November 25 the appellant's mjnd was normal and also that he knew that his act of stabbing and killing was conlrary to law. He concealed the weapon of offence. He bolted the front door of his house to prevent arrest. He then tried to run away by the back door. When an a-acmpt \\'as made to apprehend him he :an back to his house and bloted the door. He then tried to disperse the cr""1d l>y throwing brickbats from the roof. His conduct immediately after t.e occurrence displayed consciousness of his guilt. [143 F; 144 D-E]

CRIMINAL APPELLATE JuRISD!CT!ON: C~inal Appeal No. 38 of 1965.

Appeal by special leave from the judgment and order dat~d July 28, 1964 of the Punjab High Court (Circuit Bench) m Criminal Appeal No. 40-D of 1963.

S. N. Prasad, for the appellant.

H. R. Khanna and S. P. Nayyar, for the respondent.

The Judgment of the Court was delivered by

Bachawat, J.-The Additional Sessions Judge, Delhi, con-victed the appellant under sec. 302 of the Indian Penal Code and sentenced him to undergo imprisonment for life. The Judge also convicted the appellant under sec. 324 of the Indian Penal Code, sentenced him to undergo six months rigorous imprisonment and directed that the two sentences would run concurrently. An appeal was filed in the High Court of Punjab. The High Court dismissed the appeal. The appellant has filed this appeal after obtaining special leave.

The appellant lives at Sat Nagar in Delhi. On November 25, 1961 at 1.45 p.m. he entered the house of his neighbour Soma-wati and stabbed her daughter Leela aged 1 t years with knife. He inflicted five stab wounds, one on the back trunk, one on the right gluteal region, two on the right thigh and one on the chest. The injury on the back of trunk, proved fatal. Leela died in the hospital at 4 p.m. The appellant then returned to his house and bolted the front door. crowd collected near the front door and raised an alarm. After some time the appellant went out by the back door and stabbed another neighbour Parbati and then Raghubir who tried to intervene on her behalf. The in-juries were simple incised wounds Rabhubir and others tried to apprehend him. He then ran back to his house, bolted the door and started throwing brickbats from the roof. He was later arrested by the police. All these facts are proved by unimpeach-able evidence.

One Dhani Ram was the father of Leela. Dhani Ram, his wife Somawati, his daughter Leela and his brother Baburam lived to-gether in the same house. Indra is the appellant's sister. The app~llan~ al!d his father suspected that Baburam was prone to makmg ilhctt approac!Jes to Indra. On this account, the appel-lant had long standing grudge against Baburam. This enmity is said to be the mo~ve of the attack by the appellant on Leela, member of the family of Baburam. The motive for the attack on Parbati is not clear. Raghubir was attacked because he tried to intervene.

The defence plea was of insanity. The Additional Sessions Judge and the High Court concurrentlv reiected this defence.

We may briefly notice the evidence bearing on the plea of in-sanity. Since 1958 the appellant was an employre in the Stores Branch of the Northern Railway Headquarters in Baroda House. New Delhi. In 1958 and 1959 he had altercations with other clerks in the office. On May 20, 1959 his superior officer ob-served that he was prone to lose temper in no time. In his mo-ments of excitement. he became dangerous and used to hit his co!leagues with anything that he could lay his hands on. But at the time of his greatest excit.,ment he could distinguish betwe.cn right and wrong. After May 1959 he worked at his desk as nonnal man. In March 1960 he again quarrelled with another clerk. He was suspended and sent for medical examination. At this stage he was suffering from mental illness. On October 12. I 960 he was examined bv psychiatrist who found that be exhibited symptoms of acute schizophrenia and showed disorder of thought. emotion and perception of external re:1lities. The psychiatrist said that he was harbourinir certain delusions. The naturr of the delusions is not stat.~d. It is not proved that th·~ appellant suffered from any particular delusion or hallucination. The appellant was put on drug named largactil and w:Ls given convulsive electrn-therapy treatment. On January 12. 1961 he was cured of his illness and was advised to join his duties. On resuming his duties the 3ppcllant worked in the office in the nor-mal manner.There is some evidence that on the morning of November 25. 1961 and the prccedin!! night, the appellant complained that he was unwell and took medicine. But on the morning of Novem-ber 25, he went to his office as usual. He was late in attendance and wa.s marked absent. He applied in writing for one day's casual leave stating that he had an urgent piece of work at home. No-body noticed any symptoms of mental disorder at that time. He left the office at abcut 11.30 a.m. and returned home alone. At 1.45 p.m. he stabbed Leela. Parhati and Raghubir with knife. He concealed the knife and search for it has proved fruit!=. At 2.45 p.m. the investigating officer arrived on the spot, arrested tho appellant and interrogated him. He wa.s then found nomial and gave intelligent answers. On the same date he was produ~ before Magistrate. His brother was then present but the Maps-trate was not infonned that he was insane. On November 27. he was interrogated by an Inspector. It does not appear that be was then insane.

On November 30, the appellant's brother filed an application before the committing magistrate stating that the appellant was insane at the time of the occurrence. The appellant was. l~ter remanded to judicial custody. On receipt of another apphcatmn from his brother he was kept under medical observation fi:om December 16 to December 23. On December 19 the mcd1cal

officer noted that the appellant was indifferent to his surrounding' and personal cleanliness, preoccupied iu his thoughts muttering to himself, making meaningless gestures, losing track of conversa-tions, given to delayed and repetitive answers and unable to give detailed account of incidents leading to his arrest. On Decem-ber 23, he was declared to be lunatic though not violent. The 8 psychiatrist noted that the appellant had relapse of schizo-phrenia and was suffering from disorder of thought, emotion and loss of contact with realities. From his attitude and manner of talk he was found to be aggressive. On September 6, 1962 the psychiatrist reported that the appellant was cured and was in position to understand proceedings in court. The commitment order'was made on January 4, 1963. The trial started in Febru-·C ary 1963. The appellant was sane at_the time of the trial.

The group of aihnents dubbed schizophrenia is discussed in James D. Page's Abnormal Psychology, Ch. XI, pages 236 to 261 and Modi's Medical Jurisprudence and Toxicology, 14th ed., pages 349 to 401. Schizophrenia is general term referring to group of severe mental disorders marked by splitting or dis-0 integra!ion, of the personality. The most striking clinical features include general psychological disharmony, emotional impoverish-ment, dilapidation of thought processes, absence of social rapport, delusions, halluc'nations and peculiarities of conduct.

The question is whether the appellant is criminally responsi-ble for the acts done on November 25, 1961. Section 84 of the Indian Penal Code says :-

"Nothing is an offence which is done by person who, at the time of doing it, by reason of unsoundness of mind, is incapable of knowing the nature of the act, or that he is doing what is either wrong or contrary to la\¥." ·

To establish that the acts done ar' not offences under sec. 84 it must be proved clearly that at the time of the commission of the act the appellant by reason of unsoundness of mind was incapable of either knowing that the acts were either morally wrong or contrary to law. The question is whether the appellant was suffering from such incapacity. at the time of the commission of the acts. On this question, the state of his mind before and after the crucial time is relevant. There is evidence of medical character that between October 12, 1960 and January 12, 1961 he was suffering from schizophrenia. He was completely cured of this disease on January 12, 1961 when he resumed his normal duties. He had another attack of this disease in the middle of December 1961. The attack lasted till September 1962 when he was found to be normal again. But it is to be observed that the defence witnesses do not say that even during these two periods the appellant was incapable of discriminating between right and

wrong or of knowing the physical nature of the acts done by him. -

After the appellant was cured of the disease on January 12. 1961 he was found to be normal. He had highly strung tem-perament and was easily excitable. But there is positive evidence that even at the moment of his greatest excitement he could dis-tinguish between right and wro11g. From January 12, upto November 24, 1961 he attended his office and discharged his duties in nonnal manner. On the morning of November 25. 1961 his mind was normal. He went to and from his office all alone. He wrote sensible application askinl! for casual leave for one day. At 1.45 p.m. he stabbed and killed child and soon thereafter he stabbed two other persons. On bis arrest soon after 2.45 p.m. he gave- nonnal and intelligent answer.< to th~ investigating officers. '\/othin!! abnormal in him was noticed till Dcccm bcr 16, 1961.

The thing in farnur of the appellant is that though he had motive for attacking Baburam, no clear motive for attacking the child Lecia or Parbati is discernible. But there is clear evi-D dence to show that he knew that his act of stabbing and killiJ1~ W'1.~ wrong and contrary to law. He concealed the weapon ;if offence. The knife could not be recovered in spite of searches. He bolted the front door of his house to prevent arrest. He then tried to run away by the back door. When an attempt was made to apprehend him he ran back to his house and bolted the door. He then tried to disperse the crowd by throwing brickbats from the roof. Jfo conduct immediately after the occurrence displays consciousness of his guilt. He knew the physical nature of stab-bing. He knew that the stabbing would kill and maim his victims. 011 compwhensive review of the entire evidence the two courts below concurrently found that the defence of insanity under sec. 84 was not made out. We arc unable to sa\· that !he verdict of the courts below is erroneous. -If pcrwn by reason of unsoundness of mind is incapable or knowin~ the nature of the act or that he is doing what is either wrong nr contrary to law he cannot be guilty of any criminal intent. Such person Jacks the requisite mens rca and is entitled to an acquittal. But it is not established in the present case that the appellant was suffering from this incapacity. The general burden is on the prosecution to prove beyond reasonable doubt not onlv the actus rrus but also the mens rca. The r1'l1'Ccution satisfactorily dischar)!ed this burden. The appellant was not in-.sane at the time of the killin~ and stabbin~ and he knew the consequences of those acts. We must hold that he is criminally responsible for the acts.