In Brief
In this criminal appeal, the Supreme Court considered whether a husband's conviction for murdering his wife by strangulation with a metal rod (saria) should be upheld or modified. The Court held that all four elements of Exception 4 to Section 300 IPC (sudden fight, no premeditation, heat of passion, and no undue cruelty) were satisfied. The killing arose from a sudden quarrel over money and the weapon was seized in the moment, not pre-planned. The Court found strangulation in such circumstances was not extreme cruelty sufficient to deny the Exception. The conviction was modified from murder to culpable homicide not amounting to murder, and the sentence was reduced from life imprisonment to 10 years.
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