In Brief
A man was assaulted by the appellant and admitted to hospital with injuries. The deceased survived for 51 days before dying of septicemia in an operated case. The trial court and High Court convicted the appellant under Section 302 IPC (murder). The Supreme Court held that the injuries, while real, were not inherently sufficient to cause death in the ordinary course of nature, and the proximate cause of death was septicemia, not the assault. Consequently, the Court modified the conviction to Section 304 Part I IPC (causing death by act endangering life) and reduced the sentence to 10 years' rigorous imprisonment.
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