Supreme Court reduces jail term of soldier who fired gun, killed fellow soldier after tiff over seniority

The Supreme Court on Thursday modified the conviction and reduced the jail sentence of a former soldier who had shot a fellow Lance Naik after a heated dispute over seniority [L/nk Gursewak Singh vs Union of India and anr].The Court concluded that the soldier should not be convicted for murder but should be convicted only for culpable homicide not amounting to murder since he had acted in the heat of the moment..A bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Sanjay Karol noted that there was no premeditation to kill in what was a heated moment and that only one bullet was fired, although the gun had more bullets.."In a disciplined force like Army, the seniority has all the importance. Therefore, there is every possibility that the dispute over seniority resulted in the appellant doing the act in a heat of passion," the Court further observed..The top court observed that a fight over inter-se seniority had broken out after the deceased and the convict had consumed liquor.Thereafter, the former is stated to have refused to bring water for the latter, citing the fact that he was senior. The appellant then snatched the deceased's rifle and fired a bullet..The Supreme Court noted that the convict had then helped to take the deceased to the hospital, although he succumbed to his injury."It appears that in the heat of passion, the appellant snatched a rifle held by the deceased and fired only one bullet. If there was any premeditation on the part of the appellant or if he had any intention to kill the deceased, he would have fired more bullets at the deceased. Hence, there was no intention on his part to kill the deceased," the bench opined. Therefore, the Court modified the soldier's conviction, and altered his sentence from life imprisonment to the period of jail time already undergone.Since the convict was let out on bail in April 2020 by the top court, the bail bonds were directed to be cancelled..The incident in question occurred in December 2004 at the Ferozepur Cantonment in Punjab.The accused, an Indian Army Lance Naik, was subsequently convicted by Court Martial for murder and dismissed from service. A Major General Officer Commanding and the Chief of the Army Staff had rejected his pleas against the conviction, after which he approached the High Court of Punjab and Haryana. The High Court remanded the matter to the Armed Forces Tribunal, where his plea was again dismissed. The High Court, in the second round of litigation, dismissed his plea while granting the former soldier liberty to avail the statutory remedy of approaching the Supreme Court to challenge the Tribunal's order in appeal.This led to the appeal before the Supreme Court..While deciding on the matter, the top court also factored in that both the convicted lance naik and the deceased had consumed liquor before the verbal fight erupted between them, and that the convicted person had not acted in any cruel manner.The top court added that good conduct of the convicted soldier was a mitigating factor for determining sentence. It also noted that he had already undergone incarceration for a period of over 9 years.The appeal was, therefore, partly allowed..Advocates Abhimanyu Tewari, Eliza Bar, Sidhhant Saroha, Tushar Bathija, Praveer Singh, and Parth Jain represented Lance Naik Gursewak Singh.Senior Advocate R Bala and advocates AK Kaul, Rukhmini Bobde,Shiv Mangal Sharma, Priyanka Das, Rajan Kumar Chourasia, Sweksha, and Arvind Kumar Sharma appeared for the Central government..[Read Judgment]