Wife’s ‘Thousand Husbands’ Jibe Cuts Husband’s Life Sentence: MP
The comment comes as a 'great and sudden provocation' even while reducing hubby’s sentence from life term to 7 years, for killing spouse
Bhopal: Terming wife’s taunt at her husband that she could keep a thousand husbands like him, a ‘grave and sudden provocation’, the Madhya Pradesh High Court has reduced the sentence of a man, convicted of killing his spouse, from a life term to seven years.
A division bench of Justices Vivek Agrawal and Avanindra Kumar Singh observed that such remarks by a wife amounted to indirect assault on the worth and dignity of the husband, which can trigger grave and sudden provocation to lose his self-control.
The court, however, has held him responsible for his wife’s death.
The case relates to the killing of a seven-month pregnant woman by her husband in Chhindwara district in Madhya Pradesh in July 2021.
The husband had hit his wife with a stone, killing her after she allegedly made these provocative remarks.
The man had informed the deceased’s family and the police after killing her.
Postmortem reports said that the woman died from multiple injuries, including to her ribs and sternum.
“When a wife refers to her husband that ‘she can keep a thousand husbands like him’, it is (an indirect / oblique reference to the worthlessness of the husband, meaning he has no value as a human being or a husband. Therefore, it can be termed as a sudden and grave provocation”, the court ruled.
The bench held the killing of the woman as culpable homicide not amounting to murder, and observed that it was not established as a premeditated attack.
The man informed the victim’s kin and the police about the incident and never intended to conceal it, the court said, while altering the conviction under Section 304 Part 1 IPC to Section 304 Part 11, leading to reduction of his sentence from life term to seven years.
