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Petition for Special Leave to Appeal No. K‑33 of 1974, decided on 4^th September 1974.

(On appeal from the judgment and order of the High Court of Sind & Baluchistan, Karachi, dated the 11th March 1974, in Cr. Appeal No. J‑26 of 1972).

‑‑ S. 300, Exception I‑Grave and sudden provocation‑Grievance culminating in commission of murder nursed by accused for some time‑Provocation though grave yet not sudden‑Case, held, not covered by Exception I to S. 300, P. P. C.

S. Nasiruddin, Senior Advocate Supreme Court instructed by V. A. Kidwai, Advocate‑on‑Record for Petitioner

Nemo for the State.

Date of hearing : 4th September 1974.

‑The petitioner killed his sister by striking her at first with an iron bar and then slaughtering her throat with a churn. He himself reported the incident to the police and made a judicial confes sion before a Magistrate in which he claimed that be had murdered his sister, because she was of loose moral character and his friends and relatives used to taunt him on her account.

The circumstances in which the crime took place left no doubt that the petitioner had acted with deliberation. The deceased was accompanied by her young son Muhammad Sharif, P. W. 2. The petitioner gave him two paisas to go out and buy sweets. Soon after he had left, the petitioner attacked the deceased and killed her in the courtyard of his house. As no other motive for killing was attributed to the petitioner it could be said that there was an element of provocation in the commission of the crime, but since it was not sudden and grave so as to deprive the petitioner of power of self‑control, the trial Judge held him guilty under section 302, P. P. C. and awarded him the lesser penalty of life imprisonment. The same view has prevailed in the High Court and the appeal filed by the petitioner against his conviction and sentence has been dismissed. He now seeks leave to appeal.

We have heard Mr. Nasiruddin in support of the petition and find no substance in any one of the pleas raised by him. At best it could be said that the petitioner had acted under grave provocation, but it is hard to find that the provocation was so sudden that the offence committed falls under Exception I to section 300, P. P. C. The petitioner knew for quite some time that the deceased had become immoral. He himself says that his friends and relatives used to taunt him on account of his sister. It was thus a case of grievance which he had nursed for some time before he chose to kill his sister. In the circumstances the plea that the petitioner bad acted because of grave and sudden provocation has been rightly discarded by the Courts below.

The petition is dismissed.

Petition dismissed.

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