VIDYAMATI Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal by Vidyamati, aged about 17, against her conviction by the learned Additional Sessions Judge of Jubbal under Section 302, I.P.C., and the sentence of transportation for life imposed upon her.

(2.) She is the daughter of one An Das of village Bamhnoli, police station Rohm in district Mahasu. She was married to Chain Ram (P. W. 8) of the same village on 6-3-1950 and four days later, on 10-3-1950, she was delivered of an illegitimate female child in her father's cattle-shed. She buried it in a Khud, or gorge. The prosecution case is that the child was borne alive and the appellant caused its death by severing the head from the body with an axe. The appellant pleaded that the child was born dead.

(3.) The first question that arise is whether the child was born alive. The prosecution relies in this connection on the testimony of one Mt. Herpati, a midwife of Bamhnoli, and of Dr. Jiwan Lal, Medical Officer-in-charge of the Civil Hospital at Jabbal, who held the post-mortem on 20-3-1950 on the dead body of the alleged child. The prosecution also relies upon the appellant's confession. The dead body was discovered in the Khud by Shankar Lal (P.W. 2), of Bamhnoli at about 9 A.M. on 17-3-1950. It appeared to have been exhumed by wild animals. The head was lying at a short distance from the body. The lower jaw, left arm, ribs of left side, anterior abdominal wall in catches and all the internal viscera (lungs, heart, spleen, liver, kidneys, stomach, intestines, urinary bladder, etc.), had been eaten up by wild animals.