KUMBHAR NARSI BECHAR Vs. STATE OF GUJARAT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The next question is whether the accused must be deemed to have caused the death of Mahendra. Mahendra was admitted in the hospital on 5-3-60 at 9-50 P. M. he was operated some time after 10-30 P. M. the same night and he died at 7-20 P. M. on 11-3-60. According to Dr. Vaidya the cause of death was pulmonary embolism in left lung inflection and shock. In cross-examination the doctor has also deposed as follows :

(2.) If is therefore clear from his evidence that the immediate cause of death was pulmonary embolism in left lung infection and shock and obstruction in the circulation of blood in an artery. The question is whether the appellant can be said to have caused the death. In most cases even if fatal wounds are inflicted the wounds themselves are not the immediate cause of death in the medical sense. But even in such cases death must be attributed to the injuries which lead to death. In order that a person should be held responsible for having caused the death it is not necessary that his act should be the immediate cause of death in the medical sense. If P causes to Q injuries likely to cause death and as a result of such injuries it is necessary to perform an operation on Q the injured man and the injured man dies as a cumulative result of the original injuries as well as the operation P must be deemed to have caused the death of Q because the operation itself was necessitated by what he had done and therefore he must be held to be the cause of the operation itself and the consequential death. We need not consider cases where the person who performed the operation is either negligent or is not skilled for the purpose because in this case there is no evidence to suggest that the doctors who performed the operation were either negligent or unskilled for the purpose. It is true that the two doctors who performed the operation were not examined but it was open the defence to examine them as defence witnesses and in the absence of any evidence on the point it cannot be said that they were either negligent or that they did not have the ordinary average skill expected of such persons. This is therefore a case of injuries likely to cause death necessitating an operation resulting in the death of the injured person. In such a case it must be held that the person who inflicted the injuries likely to cause death did cause the death which ultimately resulted. It is not necessary in this case to consider whether the same principle applies to cases where the injuries which inflicted were not likely to cause death because we are not dealing with such a case. In these circumstances the appellant must be deemed to have caused the death of the injured Mahendra.

(3.) Sentence reduced.