In Brief
Two appellants were convicted of murdering Harbhajan Singh with an axe during a quarrel over land and a missing dog. Both trial and High Court sentenced them to life imprisonment. The Supreme Court found that while the head injury was serious and sufficient to cause death, the totality of circumstances—mutual injuries to both sides, a sudden quarrel without premeditation, no clear evidence who started the attack, five-day delay in FIR (due to settlement attempts), and the victim's survival for one month—brought the case under Exception 4 to Section 300 IPC. The Court modified the conviction from murder (Section 302) to culpable homicide causing death by an act known to be dangerous (Section 304 Part-I) and reduced the sentence to seven years imprisonment.
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