Introduction

• This is an important case on the doctrine of “Transfer of Malice”.
• If the killing takes place in the course of doing an act which a person intends or knows to be likely to cause death, it ought to be treated as if the real intention of the killer had been actually carried out.

Facts

• The accused took out life insurance for a person named Appala Narasimhulu without him knowing and paid the premiums himself.
• When the second premium was due, Appala needed money.
• The accused invited him to his relative's house, gave him poisoned sweetmeat intending to kill him and claim the insurance money.
• Appala ate some, threw the rest away.
• The accused's relative's daughter Rajalakshmi ate the thrown-away sweetmeat and died.
• The accused was charged with attempt to murder Appala and killing the relative's daughter.
• He was convicted for attempted murder, not for the murder, and sentenced to seven years in prison.
• Therefore, he appealed to the Madras High Court.

Issue Involved

• Whether the accused is guilty under Section 302 of the murder of the young girl, Rajalakshmi?

Observation

• The court interpreted Sections 299, 300, and 301 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (IPC) to establish culpability.
• Justice Benson convicted the accused, emphasizing mens rea or criminal intent of his act.
• Justice Sundara Aiyar challenged the expansive interpretation, contending that unintended deaths should not incur guilt.
• Justice Rahim, supporting Justice Benson's stance, said that the act of the accused in mixing arsenic in the halva and giving it to Appala Narasimhalu in Rajalakshmi’s house was one cause in the chain of causes which brought about the girl’s death.
  • He said here the throwing aside of the sweetmeat by Appala Narasimhulu and the picking and the eating of it by Rajalakshmi cannot absolve the accused from responsibility for murder.

Conclusion

• Madras HC finally convicted the accused under Section 302 and sent him to transportation for life under Section 303 of IPC.

Note

Doctrine of Transferred Malice is not defined anywhere in the IPC, but essentials are conferred in Section 301 of the IPC.

• 299 of IPC: Culpable homicide. - Whoever causes death by doing an act with the intention of causing death, or with the intention of causing such bodily injury as is likely to cause death, or with the knowledge that he is likely by such act to cause death, commits the offence of culpable homicide.

Explanation 1. - A person who causes bodily injury to another who is labouring under a disorder, disease or bodily infirmity, and thereby accelerates the death of that other, shall be deemed to have caused his death.

Explanation 2. - Where death is caused by bodily injury, the person who causes such bodily injury shall be deemed to have caused the death, although by resorting to proper remedies and skilful treatment the death might have been prevented.

Explanation 3. - The causing of the death of child in the mother's womb is not homicide. But it may amount to culpable homicide to cause the death of a living child if any part of that child has been brought forth, though the child may not have breathed or been completely born.

• 300 of IPC: Murder. - Except in the cases hereinafter excepted, culpable homicide is murder, if the act by which the death is caused is done with the intention of causing death, or -

2ndly. - It is done with intention of causing such bodily injury as the offender knows to be likely to cause the death of the person to whom the harm is caused, or -

3rdly. - If it is done with the intention of causing bodily injury to any person and the bodily injury intended to be inflicted is sufficient in the ordinary course of nature to cause death, or -

4thly. - If the person committing the act knows that it is so imminently dangerous that it must, in all probability, cause death or such bodily injury as is likely to cause death, and commits such act without any excuse for incurring the risk of causing death or such injury as aforesaid.

Exception 1. - When culpable homicide is not murder. - Culpable homicide is not murder if the offender, whilst deprived of the power of self-control by grave and sudden provocation, causes the death of the person who gave the provocation or causes the death of any other person by mistake or accident.

The above exception is subject to the following provisos:-

First. - That the provocation is not sought or voluntarily provoked by the offender as an excuse for killing or doing harm to any person.

Secondly. - That the provocation is not given by anything done in obedience to the law, or by a public servant in the lawful exercise of the powers of such public servant.

Thirdly. - That the provocation is not given by anything done in the lawful exercise of the right of private defence.

Explanation. - Whether the provocation was grave and sudden enough to prevent the offence from amounting to murder is a question of fact.

Exception 2. - Culpable homicide is not murder if the offender, in the exercise in good faith of the right of private defence of person or property, exceeds the power given to him by law and causes the death of the person against whom he is exercising such right of defence without premeditation, and without any intention of doing more harm that in necessary for the purpose of such defence.

Exception 3. - Culpable homicide is not murder if the offender, being a public servant or aiding a public servant acting for the advancement of public justice, exceeds the powers given to him by law, and causes death by doing an act which he, in good faith, believes to be lawful and necessary for the due discharge of his duty as such public servant and without ill-will towards the person whose death is caused.

Exception 4. - Culpable homicide is not murder if it is committed without premeditation in a sudden fight in the heat of passion upon a sudden quarrel and without the offenders having taken undue advantage or acted in a cruel or unusual manner.

Explanation. - It is immaterial in such cases which party offers the provocation or commits the first assault.

Exception 5. - Culpable homicide is not murder when the person whose death is caused, being above the age of eighteen years, suffers death or takes the risk of death with his own consent.

• 301 of IPC: Culpable homicide by causing death of person other than person whose death was intended. -
  • If a person, by doing anything which he intends or knows to be likely to cause death, commits culpable homicide by causing the death of any person, whose death he neither intends nor knows himself to be likely to cause, the culpable homicide committed by the offender is of the description of which it would have been if he had caused the death of the person whose death he intended or knew himself to be likely to cause.
• 302 of IPC: Punishment for murder. -
  • Whoever commits murder shall be punished with death, or [imprisonment for life], and shall also be liable to fine.