1980 INSC 0150
                                                       Som Nath

                                                           Vs

                                                  State of Haryana

                             Special Leave Petition (Criminal) No. 3478 of 1979

                                  (V. R. Krishna Iyer, E. S. Venkataramiah JJ)

                                                      31.03.1980

                                                        ORDER

KRISHNA IYER, J. ­

1. Wife burning - that atrocious species of murder horrendously escalating in some parts of this
country - is the shocking crime proved, according to two courts, by the prosecution in this case.
Concurrent fin dings of fact cannot be disturbed save on enormity of improbability which we are
unable to see in the present case. The three dying declarations corroborated by other circumstances
are sufficient in our view to bring home the offence. Counsel has sought to discredit these
declarations relevant under Section 32 of the Evidence Act forgetting that they are the groaning
utterances of a dying woman in the grip of dreadful agony which cannot be judged by the standards
of fullness of particulars which witnesses may give in other situations. To discredit such dying
declarations for shortfalls here or there or even in many places is unrealistic, unnatural and
unconscionable if basically there is credibility. The terrible in this case has taken place in the house
and in presence of the husband who has been convicted. We hardly see any reason for interfering
with this conviction, and would have been shocked ourselves if any other course had been adopted
either by the trial Court or by the High Court. Gender justice has a high place in Indian criminal
jurisprudence. Dismissed.

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