Fact of the case :

Kalavati was married to the appellant (Dayabhai Chhaganbhai Thakkar ) in the year 1958. But the marital relationship between him and his wife was under strain due to the indifference between them.

On the night of 9 April 1959, the appellant and his wife were sleeping in their bedroom and the doors leading to that room were locked from inside. Around 3 to 4 in the morning, suddenly Kalavati shouted that she was being killed.

Hearing this, the neighbors gathered in front of the said room and asked the accused to open the door. When the door was opened, they saw Kalavati dead, with several wounds on her body. The accused was sent for hearing in the session on the charge of murder.

To summarize this case in the conclusion the Court find that the accused did not like his wife, indeed though he was employed in Ahmedabad and stayed there for about 10 months, he did not take his wife with him, he wrote a letter to his father-in-law to the force that the accused did not like her and that he should take her away to his house, the father-in-law promised to come on Chaitra Sudhi 1, the accused expected him to come on April 9, 1959, and tolerated the presence of his wife in his house till then, as his father-in-law did not come on or before April 9, 1959, the accused in anger or frustration killed his wife.

Held : “It has not been proved that he was insane, nor the evidence is satisfactory even to throw a reasonable doubt in our mind that the act might have been done when the accused was in a fit of insanity. The Court, therefore, though for different reasons, agree with the conclusion arrived at by the High Court and dismiss the appeal.

When a plea of insanity is set up, the court has to consider whether at the time of commission of the offence the accused by reason of unsoundness of mind, was incapable of knowing the nature of the act or that what he was doing was either wrong or contrary to law. The crucial point of time for ascertaining the state of mind of the accused is the time when the offence was committed.”