Vasant Narayan Pawar v. State of Maharashtra

KRISHNA IYER, J.--Shri Pramod Swamp appearing as amicus curiae bas presented the case of the accused as effectively as the record per-mits. Indeed, he has gone to the extent of pressing into service points which do not appear to us to have any force. Moreover, be has tried to persuade us to believe that a dying declaration made by the lady who was burnt to death by the husband-accused-that i, the charge on which the trial court and the High Court have found the petitioner II guilty--is exonerative of the accused-husband and dues not implicate him as tl!.e Court has construed. The declarant as she was dyini: was 1210 StJPREMll COURT !!.!!PORTS [1980] 2 s.c.R. conscious enough to make a statement and in one of the several state-ments she made, it would appear, she said when her husband was being beaten up that even though she had been burnt, her husband should not be beaten. This is a sentiment too touching for tears and stems from the values of the culture of the Indian womanhood. A wife when she has been set fire to by her !Jusband, true to her tradition, does not want her husband to be assaulted brutally. It is this sentiment which prompted this dying tragic woman to say that even if she was dying having been burnt, her husband should not be beaten. We are unable to appreciate how this statement can be converted into one cxculpative of the accused. Anyway, we are mentioning these facts only because Shri Pramod Swarup contended that they were weighty circumstances sufficient to cancel the conviction.

Wife burning tragedies are becoming too frequent for the country to be complacent. Police sensitisation mechanisms which will prevent the commission of such crimes must be set up if these horrendous crimes are to be avoided. Likewise, special provisions facilitating I) easier proof of su~h special class of murders on establishing ceitain

basic facts must be provided for by appropriate legislation. Law must rise to the challenge of shocking criminology, especialiy when helpless women are the victims and the crime is committed in th_e secrecy of the husband's home-We hope the State's concern for the weaker sections of the community will be activised into appropriate machinery nnd procedure. We dismiss the special leave petition.

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GIPF-!38SCI/80-12 • 11-80

CRIMINAL APPELLATE JURISDICTION : Special Leave Petition (Criminal) No. 2636 of 1979. j ,.._

From the Judgment and Order dated 25-4-1979 of the Bombay tt;gh Court in Criminal Appeal No. 822/77.

Pramod Swarup (Amicus Curiae) for the Petitioner.

H. R. Khanna and M. N. Shroff for the Respondent.