Court caseAIR 1940 All 486

Dhirajia, a young woman with a six-month-old baby, lived unhappily with her husband, who ill-treated her. One night she left the house with the baby. Her husband woke, followed and shouted at her. In panic she turned and jumped into a well with the baby in her arms. The baby died; she was pulled out alive. The Sessions Judge convicted her of murder under s. 302 IPC and of attempting to commit suicide under s. 309.

The Allahabad High Court set aside the conviction for murder. The judges held that a woman fleeing in terror had no intention of causing the child's death, but a person of her age must be taken to know that jumping into a well with a baby was likely to cause its death. The act was therefore culpable homicide not amounting to murder, punishable under s. 304 Part II, and the sentence was reduced accordingly. On the charge of attempting suicide the court acquitted her: her act was prompted by panic, not by an intention to end her life.