In (India Penal Code) section 299 defines culpable homicide and In (Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita) section 100 defines culpable homicide
Introduction
Culpable homicide defines whoever causes death by doing an act with the intention of causing death or with the intention of causing such bodily injury as is likely to cause death or with the knowledge that he is likely by act to cause death commits the offence of culpable homicide
And The word ‘homicide’ comes from the Latin words ‘homo’ and ‘cide’ where ‘homo’ means man and ‘ride’ means ‘I cut’.
. Homicide means the killing of a human being by a human being
CLASSIFICATION OF HOMICIDE
. lawful homicide
. unlawful homicide
Lawful homicide
There are kinds of lawful homicide following as –
. Excusable homicide
. justified homicide
Excusable homicide
This is the killing of one person by another resulting from a person’s lawful act, committed without the intent to kill or harm another.
Justified homicide
According to Black’s Law Dictionary justifiable homicide applies to the blameless killing of a person, such as in self-defense
Unlawful homicide
There are kinds of unlawful homicide following as –
. culpable homicide not amounting to murder (In IPC Section 304) & ( In BNS section 101 and 103 )
. Murder (In IPC Section 300 )& ( In BNS section 101 and 103 )
. Suicide (In IPC Section 305 and 306 )& ( In BNS section 107 to 108 )
.Homicide by rash and negligent act not culpable (In IPC Section 304 A) & ( In BNS section 106 A )
culpable homicide not amounting to murder
- Culpable homicide not amounting to murder means an act that is not done with the highest degree of intention and knowledge as required under the essentials for constituting an offence as murder.
To be precise, we can say that culpable homicide not amounting to murder involves two things:
- The acts that fall under the five exceptions given in Section 300 of the IPC and In BNS section 101 and 103
- acts which do not fulfil the conditions for murder under Section 300 of the IPC. and In BNS section 101 and 103
. Murder
.Except in the cases hereinafter excepted, culpable homicide is murder, if the act by which the death is caused is done with the intention of causing death,
Secondly- If it is done with the intention of causing such bodily injury as the offender knows to be likely to cause the death of the person to whom the harm is caused, or-
Thirdly- If it is done with the intention of causing bodily injury to any person and the bodily injury intended to be inflicted is sufficient in the ordinary course of nature to cause death, or-
Fourthly – If the person committing the act knows that it is so imminently dangerous that it must, in all probability, cause death or such bodily injury as is likely to cause death, and commits such act without any excuse for incurring the risk of causing death or such injury as aforesaid.
Suicide
Whoever attempts to commit suicide and does any act towards the commission of such offence, shall be punished with simple imprisonment for a term which may extend to one year or with fine, or with both
Homicide by rash and negligent act not culpable
Whoever causes the death of any person by doing any rash or negligent act not amounting to culpable homicide, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to two years, or with fine, or with both.
PUNISHMENT FOR CULPABLE HOMICIDE (Section 304 IPC)
Section 304 provides punishment for offence of culpable homicide not amounting to murder. Under this there are two kinds of punishments applying to two different circumstances:
1. If the act by which death is caused was done with the intention of causing death or such bodily injury as is likely to cause death, the punishment is life imprisonment or imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to 10 years and fine.
2. If act is done with knowledge that it is likely to cause death but without any intention to cause death or such bodily injury as is likely to cause death, the punishment is imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to 10 years or with fine or both.
Conclusion
While culpable homicide is an act of causing death of a person by any means, murder is a culpable homicide with the intention of killing the person by deliberate and premeditated act or malice aforethought.
By Prince (intern)