The Indian penal code being act XLV of 1860; Annotated with rulings of the high courts in India up to July 1894

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1894 Excerpt: ... by means of a pistol' or a sword. Suppose it to be proved to the entire conviction of a Criminal Court that Z. the deceased, was in a very critical state of;! KEPOKT Ot HIE INDIAN LAW COMMISSIONERS ON OHKNCKS AliAINSl HIE BOUV--cuntd. health; that A, the heir to Z's property, had been informed by Z's physicians that Z's recovery absolutely depended on his being kept quiet in mind, and that the smallest mental excitement would endanger his life; that A immediately broke into Z's sick room, and told him a dreadful piece of intelligence, which was a pure invention; that 7. went into fits, and died on the spot; that A had afterwards boasted of having cleared the way for himself to a good property by this artifice. These things Being fully proved, no Judge could doubt that A had voluntarily caused the death of Z; nor do we perceive any reason for not punishing A in the same manner in which he would have been punished if he had mixed arsenic in Z's medicine. Again, Mr. Livingston excepts from the definition of homicide the case of a person who dies of a slight wound which, from neglect, or from the application of improper remedies, has proved mortal. We see no reason for excepting such cases from the simple general rule which we propose. It will, indeed, be in general more difficult to prove-that death has been caused by a scratch than by a stab which has reached the heart; and it will, in a still greater degree, be more difficult to prove that a scratch was intended to cause death, than that a stab was intended to cause death. Yet both these points might be fully established. Suppose such a case as the following: It is proved that A inflicted a slight wound on Z, a child who stood between him and a large property. It is proved that the ignorant and superstitiou...