Court caseAIR 1956 SC 488

Basdev, a retired military jamadar, attended a wedding feast in a village in Pepsu where he drank heavily. He asked a young boy, Maghar Singh, to move so that he could sit on a chair; when the boy did not, Basdev shot him in the abdomen with his pistol, and the boy died. There was evidence that Basdev was very drunk, but also that he walked, talked, found his way and tried to leave afterwards. He was convicted of murder and pleaded that his drunkenness prevented him from forming the intention to kill.

The Supreme Court dismissed the appeal. Section 85 protects only involuntary intoxication. Under s. 86, where an offence requires a particular intent or knowledge, a voluntarily drunk person is presumed to have the same knowledge as a sober man; the section says nothing about intention, so intention must be gathered from the facts, including the degree of drunkenness. Following the English rule in DPP v. Beard, drunkenness is a defence only if it was so deep that the accused was incapable of forming the specific intent. Here Basdev's conduct showed that he knew what he was doing; the intention to kill was proved and the conviction for murder stood.