House-trespass in order to commit offence punishable with imprisonment for life

Related judgements & precedents

These are some judgments that construed this section, and hold precedence value. They hold authority on how to read, interpret and use this section.

1. Munna vs State of M. P

   Supreme Court of India 16 Sep 2014 Binding (SC) Reportable

   Court's Decision & Legal Precedent

   While the testimony of a prosecutrix in a sexual assault case deserves significant weight and can be the basis for conviction even without corroboration, such conviction cannot be sustained when the prosecutrix's statement has inherent infirmities and the totality of circumstances creates doubt about the veracity of the prosecution version. The presence of major discrepancies between initial allegations and trial version, the victim's own subsequent retraction, complete absence of medical or physical corroborative evidence, internal contradictions in the victim's testimony, and evidence of motive for false accusation collectively create a situation where the benefit of doubt must be given to the accused.

   On this section: House breaking with intent to commit offense; conviction under this section was also set aside due to evidentiary infirmities

   Read the full order on eCourts India

2. Sukhraj Singh vs Sanjiv Kumar @ Gora

   Supreme Court of India 19 Mar 2015 Persuasive (Supreme Court - Non-Binding for Future on Specific Facts; Binding as Reportable

   Court's Decision & Legal Precedent

   The conviction of Sanjiv Kumar under Sections 395, 450, and 342 IPC is legally sustainable as it is supported by credible prosecution evidence including eyewitness testimony, documentary evidence, and investigative findings; the separate acquittal or relief granted to a co-offender in a different proceeding does not invalidate the conviction of another accused if the evidence against that accused is independently reliable and credible; sentencing for criminal offences must balance the need for just punishment with proportionality between the offence and penalty, considering the impact on society and the victim, and mere passage of time since the incident without exceptional circumstances does not warrant further sentence reduction beyond what the trial and appellate courts have determined.

   On this section: Criminal trespass to commit dacoity - conviction upheld for trespass into premises of Wadhawan Forex for committing robbery

   Read the full order on eCourts India

3. Subash Chander vs Krishan Lal

   Supreme Court of India 29 Mar 2001 Persuasive (Supreme Court precedent on sentencing discretion and life imprisonme

   Court's Decision & Legal Precedent

   In cases where evidence conclusively establishes guilt of accused for heinous crimes like murder of a sleeping family by persons previously involved in witness elimination, and where the High Court has exercised its discretion to commute death sentence to life imprisonment based on general conspectus of facts, the Supreme Court should not interfere with such discretion merely because a 'rarest of rare case' standard might be met. However, where there exists imminent danger to surviving family members from a desperate criminal and where the accused himself voluntarily undertakes on instructions that he shall never seek premature release or commutation, the court can impose an exceptional condition making the life sentence truly a natural life sentence from which no relief can be granted under any statute or jail rules. Life imprisonment in Indian law means imprisonment for the entire natural life of the convicted person unless commuted by the appropriate Government, and it does not automatically expire at the end of any specific period including 20 years.

   On this section: Criminal trespass; applied for the unauthorized entry into the house

   Read the full order on eCourts India

The holding above is the ratio decidendi as extracted from the judgment by eCourts India, reproduced unaltered — it is a rendering of the court's reasoning, not a substitute for its words. Read the order itself before relying on it.