Moot Problem (Criminal law)

The Democratic Republic of Indica is situated in Asian Subcontinent. Indica is a

On dated 15th Feb.2010, Piyush, aged 30, S/O- Late Jatin, R/O- 90/3- Castle
Apartment, Funty, and Nikita, Aged 25 yrs, D/O- Jignesh, R/O- Model Colony, Funty,
were married according to their religious rituals. Their marital life was going
smoothly. On some occasions they used to have few verbal quarrels with each other
but they reconciled soon after the verbal fight. Two years after the marriage Nikita
gave birth to a baby girl on 4 th May 2012. The girl was named as Reet. After few
months of the birth of Reet, Nikita observed certain changes in the behaviour of
Piyush. Piyush started behaving in a rude way and he usually becomes violent on
every petty issue without any reason. Initially Nikita did not take the matter in a
serious way but when the violent character of Piyush continued Nikita took her
husband Piyush to the doctor Akash (DW1), who was a psychiatrist. The doctor
advised Piyush to have control over anger and to take certain medicines. The doctor
diagnosed him to be suffering from first stage of Bipolar Mood Disorder
(Bipolar disorder, also known as manic-depressive illness, is a brain disorder that
causes unusual shifts in mood, energy, activity levels, and the ability to carry out
day-to-day tasks. There are four basic types of bipolar disorder; all of them involve
clear changes in mood, energy, and activity levels).

In spite of the medical treatment the violent behaviour of Piyush continued to exist.
On slight issues Piyush became violent and he also started to fight with Nikita and he
also use to beat her without any reason. On dated 1st December 2012 at 11am, loud
noise of fighting, crying and shouting was coming from the house of Piyush. On
hearing the cry Jimmy(PW3) who was neighbour of Piyush went in the house of
Piyush and found Nikita lying unconscious on the floor in the pool of blood with
various injuries on her body. At that time Jimmy saw Piyush hiding a 10 inch Iron
Axe in the garden. Thereafter Jimmy called the police and Nikita was taken to
government hospital whereby she was treated by Dr. Abhi (PW2). Piyush was
arrested by police on the same day and was kept in police custody. On 2 nd
December, 2012 Nikita regained her consciousness and her statement was recorded
by Rahul (PW1) SHO of Funty Police Station. In her statement she told to the police
that on 1st December at 10 am Piyush came home and started fighting with her in a
violent way and when she resisted Piyush attacked him with axe kept in the garden.
On 4th December Nikita died because of the injury in her lower abdomen which
proved fatal. Reet the daughter of Piyush was sent to Government Child Care
Centre.

On the basis of the statement of Jimmy and the dying declaration of Nikita FIR was
lodged against Piyush vide. 534/2012 in Funty police station. Piyush was prosecuted
under Section 302 of IPC for the murder of Nikita. During interrogation Piyush stated
that he was unconscious at the time when Nikita was attacked. He told to police that
when he regained his consciousness he found Nikita lying on the floor and axe in his
hand. He told to the police that he did not know from where the axe came and he
also stated that he did not know how Nikita died.

Final Report was submitted on 29 th Jan.2013 in which Piyush was charged for
murder of Nikita under Section 302 of IPC. The case (State of Kamil vs. Piyush) was
tried by the Session Court vide Session Trial No-57/2013.

The prosecution examined the material witnesses in the court as under:-

Prosecution Witness 1 (PW1)- Rahul, SHO, Funty Police Station and Investigating
Officer of the case deposed before the Court that the deceased Nikita in her dying
declaration blamed Accused Piyush for the attack over her. PW1 also deposed
before the Court that the axe used for attack was recovered from the garden of
Piyush on which there was finger print of Piyush as per forensic report.

Prosecution Witness 2 (PW)3- Dr. Abhi who treated the deceased deposed before
the Court that the cause of death was due attack of the axe and the injury on
abdomen proved to be fatal. He also deposed that Nikita was in a mentally fit
condition at the time of making dying declaration.
Prosecution Witness 3 (PW3)- Jimmy who was neighbour of Piyush and informant
of the case in FIR deposed that he saw the unconscious body of Nikita on the floor
and Piyush trying to hide the axe in the garden.

The accused Piyush took the plea that he was suffering from Bipolar Mood Disorder
and for which he was being treated. He also stated that at the time when Deceased
Nikita was attacked he was suffering from the disorder and he was out of his
conscience and he did not knew the nature of the act and therefore, he could not be
made liable by virtue of Section 84 of IPC on ground of insanity.

The defence examined the material witnesses in the court as under:-

Defence Witness1 (DW1)-Dr.Akash who was treating accused Piyush for Bipolar
Mood Disorder stated before the Court that accused Piyush was suffering from
Bipolar Mood Disorder and the disorder was sufficient to enable a person to do any
violent act under its influence.

Defence Witness 2 (DW2)- Milind brother of Piyush who stated before the Court
that on various occasions Piyush was very much aggressive and violent even for
slight reasons.

On 3rd September 2014 Piyush was found guilty of intentional murder of Nikita and
convicted under Section 302 IPC and sentenced to 10 years Rigorous Imprisonment.

The accused feeling aggrieved by the said judgment preferred an appeal before the
High Court of Kamil on dated 5th October 2016 vide Criminal Appeal No. 374/2016.
The High Court relying on the version of the doctor treating the accused for Bipolar
Mood Disorder found that the accused at the time of committing crime was suffering
from both legal and medical insanity and accordingly the Court acquitted the
accused from the charge of murder on dated 1 st September 2018.

State of Kamil preferred an appeal before the Supreme Court of Indica against the
order of acquittal by the High Court of Kamil on 13th of November 2018.

The case of State of Kamil vs. Piyush is listed before the Divisional Bench of
Supreme Court of Indica for final hearing on 6th Jan.2019. The respective counsels
are expected to submit their considerations on the following issues:-
 1. Whether sufficient ground of legal insanity exists so as to exonerate the
accused from liability of murder.
2. Whether the burden of proof of legal insanity on the part of Defence is at par
with burden of proof on part of Prosecution.

Note - The participants may raise any other issue on the given facts to
advance arguments upon.