SC rules throwing garbage amounts to provocation

New Delhi, Nov 6 (UNI) The Supreme Court has ruled that throwing garbage or waste papers and cardboard inside the premises of a person amounts to sudden and grave provocation and murder committed under such circumstances is not punishable under Section 302 IPC.

A bench comprising Justices A K Mathur and Markandey Katju reduced the life imprisonment of the petitioner Muthu to five years simple imprisonment.

The incident took place in Tamil Nadu on April 9,1998 when the deceased Siva after collecting waste papers and cardboard boxes from the roadside threw them into the shop of Muthu. When Muthu protested the deceased pushed him.

At this, the accused took a knife which was lying in his shop and stabbed Siva in the chest as a result of which Siva died on the spot.

The apex court in its judgement ruled, ''we are satisfied that the accused was deprived of the power of self control by grave and sudden provocation which led him to commit the offence.'' If rubbish is thrown into one's house or shop one would naturally get angry.

It is evident that the accused had no motive or intention to kill the deceased since the accused was not carrying the knife and only picked it up during the scuffle with the deceased.'' The court converted the conviction of the accused from 302 IPC to Section 304 (part2) and reduced the sentence to five years with the directions that the sentence already undergone by him would be deducted from the aforesaid period of five years.

Both the trial court and Madras High Court had awarded life imprisonment to the petitioner after convicting him for the offence of murder.

UNI