In Brief
Appellant was convicted of culpable homicide not amounting to murder (Section 304 Part 1 IPC) and sentenced to 5 years imprisonment after hitting a sleeping stranger with a cement stone beneath a bridge, which resulted in death. The Trial Court and High Court applied Exception 1 to Section 300 IPC (grave and sudden provocation). The Supreme Court upheld the conviction but clarified the legal test for provocation: it must be grave, sudden, and such that a reasonable ordinary person would have lost self-control similarly. The Court reduced the sentence to time already served (4 years), finding that while conviction was proper, the unpremeditated nature of the incident and proportionality warranted leniency.
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