Court caseAIR 1961 SC 1782

Bimla Devi was married to the appellant in 1951. From 1953 she was ill-treated: kept locked in a room, denied food for days at a time, beaten and told that she would be allowed to die. By June 1956 she had been reduced to a skeleton. One day, when the door was left open, she escaped and reached the civil hospital, where the doctor found her emaciated and in danger of death. The appellant was convicted under s. 307 IPC of attempting to murder her and the High Court affirmed the conviction.

The Supreme Court dismissed the appeal. A person commits an offence under s. 307 when he has an intention to commit murder and, in pursuance of that intention, does an act towards its commission, irrespective of whether that act is the penultimate act or not. The words 'by that act' in s. 307 do not require that the act be one that, by itself and in all circumstances, must cause death; the intention and knowledge are to be judged with reference to the circumstances in which the act is done. A course of conduct consisting of repeated acts of starving the wife, done with the intention of causing her death, was an attempt to murder, and the fact that she escaped before the final result was reached did not matter.