Published on: August 16,2021
Date of decision: – 19 March, 1964
Citation: – AIR 1563, 1964 SCR (7) 361
Bench: – SUBBARAO, K.GUPTA, K.C. DASDAYAL, RAGHUBAR
Petitioner: – Dahyabhai ChhaganbhaiThakker
Respondent: – State Of Gujarat
Statute reference: – Indian Penal Code, 1860
Facts:-
Dayabhai Chhaganbhai Thakkar hereafter called the plaintiff, was the son of Chhaganbhai and the husband of the deceased Kalavati. She was married to the appellant in the year 1958. But the marital relationship between him and his wife was under strain due to the indifference between them.
On the night of 9 April 1959, the appellant and his wife were sleeping in their bedroom and the doors leading to that room were locked from inside. Around 3 to 4 in the morning, suddenly Kalavati shouted that she was being killed.
Hearing this, the neighbors gathered in front of the said room and asked the accused to open the door. When the door was opened, they saw Kalavati dead, with several wounds on her body. The accused was sent for hearing in the session on the charge of murder.
Before the Additional Sessions Judge, Kaira, a defense was established that the accused was insane when the incident was alleged and was not able to understand the nature of his act.
Issue: –
1. What was the motive for the appellant to kill his wife in the dreadful manner he did by causing 44 knives injuries on her body?
2. What was the previous history of the mental condition of the accused?
Arguments by the Appellant-
The appellant claimed that the accused was insane 2 or 3 days before the incident, even on the night of the incident, the accused opened the door and came out of the room carrying a blood-stained knife; The accused was starting to talk irrelevantly and was saying why did you kill my mother? Why did you burn my father’s house?The accused then sat there and started throwing dust and mud at the people who had gathered there, and he too was laughing without any reason. In short, the accused was under a hallucination that the deceased had murdered his mother and burnt his father’s house and therefore, he killed him in that state of mind unknowing what he was doing.
Arguments by the Respondents-
Respondents argued that if the accused had gone mad 2 or 3 days before the incident, then why accused’s father and his wife had gone to Ahmedabad on the date of the incident?
If the accused were a victim of insanity a day or two before the incident, is it likely that both parents would have left him? He also said that he said that he went to Ahmedabad to see a groom for his daughter and also took medicines for the accused.But he did not say which doctor he consulted and whether or not he bought medicines. If the accused had fit insanity. Is it likely that the wife slept with him in the same room? Also, they had not described the condition of the accused immediately when he came out of the room.
Judgement: – After seeing the certificate issued by the Medical Officer stated that Nothing about the mental condition of the accused was noted in that certificate and also Superintendent of Mental Hospital, Baroda sent his report saying that the accused was capable of understanding the proceedings of the court and of making his defence in the court.
On questioning, the court considered that the accused could understand the proceedings of the case and is capable of defending himself. At the commencement of the trial, the petitioner for the accused stated that the accused could understand the proceedings. The proceedings before the Sessions Judge only show that for a short time after the case had commenced before him the accused was insane.
But that fact would not establish that the accused was having fits of insanity for 4 or 5 years before the incident and that at the time he killed his wife he had such a fit of insanity as to give him the benefit of Section 84 of the Indian Penal Code, The Court, therefore, do not see any evidence of insanity from the materials found in the room, on the other hand, they support the case of a planned murder.
To summarize this case in the conclusion the Court find that the accused did not like his wife, indeed though he was employed in Ahmedabad and stayed there for about 10 months, he did not take his wife with him, he wrote a letter to his father-in-law to the force that the accused did not like her and that he should take her away to his house, the father-in-law promised to come on Chaitra Sudhi 1, the accused expected him to come on April 9, 1959, and tolerated the presence of his wife in his house till then, as his father-in-law did not come on or before April 9, 1959, the accused in anger or frustration killed his wife.
It has not been proved that he was insane, nor the evidence is satisfactory even to throw a reasonable doubt in our mind that the act might have been done when the accused was in a fit of insanity. The Court, therefore, though for different reasons, agree with the conclusion arrived at by the High Court and dismiss the appeal.
Conclusion:-
When a plea of legal insanity is made, the court has to consider whether at the time of the commission of the offence the accused, because of unsoundness of mind, was incapable of knowing the nature of the actor that he was doing what was either wrong or contrary to law.
The critical time to ascertain the state of mind of the accused is the time when the crime was committed. Whether the accused was in a position to be entitled to the benefit of section 84 of the Indian Penal Code can only be established from the circumstances that preceded, participated in, and followed the crime.