Keerthna Nair, National Law School of India University
ABSTRACT
The defence of Grave and Sudden provocation has been laid down in the Indian Penal Code as an Exception to S.300 which defines Murder. This defence reduces the charge of murder to that of Culpable Homicide not amounting to murder. In the English courts, The Reasonable man test is used to determine the graveness of provocation, meaning, if a reasonable man in the position of the accused gets provoked enough to kill the provoker, then, the accused is granted the defence and the sentence is reduced to Manslaughter. However, Indian Courts have digressed slightly from the English model of an objective reasonable man and devised a reasonable man subject to his social and emotional background. The purpose of this term paper is to examine the Expansive meaning given to the reasonable man in the Indian judicial approach and particularly ask whether the social background and morality of the accused is one of the layers in this expansive meaning. This Essay is divided into four parts. In Part I of this paper, the Defence of Grave and sudden provocation and its need in the criminal justice system will be discussed, in part II, The 'Reasonable Man' standard of assessing the graveness of provocation as developed through English case laws will be discussed. In Part III, we will delve into the expansive meaning of 'Reasonable Man' as developed through Indian case laws to enhance our understanding of the refinement brought into this standard by Indian courts in terms of the social and emotional background of the accused. Part IV entails concluding remarks.
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