HC sets aside life term imposed on woman, sentences her to three-year RI

The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has set aside the life sentence imposed on a woman from Madurai by a trial court for killing her husband. The court held that she had not attacked her husband with an intention to cause death nor was there any premeditation.

The woman now 60 years old had preferred an appeal against the judgment of the Principal District and Sessions Judge in Madurai. In 2019, the court sentenced the woman to undergo life imprisonment. She was convicted under Section 302 (murder) of IPC.

The woman and her husband Marichamy used to frequently quarrel with each other. He was addicted to liquor. His addiction had gone to such an extent that he started selling vessels in the house to drink.

On April 17, 2015, the woman returned from her daughter’s house and found her husband in a drunken stupor. She did not find a brass vessel in the house and inferred that he had sold it to buy liquor. 

When she questioned him, an altercation ensued between them. In a fit of rage, she took a stick and hit him. As a result, he sustained injuries and was admitted to the Government Rajaji Hospital. Later, he succumbed to his injuries.

A Division Bench of Justices P.N. Prakash and S. Ananthi observed that the woman had not attacked her husband with an intention to cause death nor was there any premeditation. Her husband was a menace to her as he used to sell vessels in the house for buying liquor.

On that fateful day, he seems to have sold the brass vessel that is normally used for storing water. When this was questioned by the woman, an infuriated Marichamy quarrelled with her, the court observed. The court partly allowed the appeal and modified the conviction.

The conviction under Section 302 (murder) of IPC was set aside. Instead, the woman was convicted under Section 304 (II) (punishment for culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of IPC. 

Considering the woman’s age and the fact that she was pushed to the wall on account of her husband’s behaviour, the court sentenced her to undergo three year rigorous imprisonment.