Throwing waste at someone’s place is a “grave and sudden provocation”, and a person who kills such an offender cannot be convicted for murder, the Supreme Court has said.

In such a case of killing, the accused can be convicted only for the offence of “culpable homicide not amounting to murder,” the apex court said, while reducing the life sentence of an accused charged with killing a person over the dispute.

“In our opinion, throwing waste and rubbish inside the house or shop of somebody is certainly a grave and sudden provocation. Everyone wishes to keep his premises neat and clean, and is likely to lose his self-control in such a situation,” a bench of Justices A K Mathur and Markandeya Katju observed.

The bench made the observation, while reducing to five year RI the life sentence of Muthu, an employee of a paper merchant in Tamil Nadu, who stabbed to death ragpicker Siva on April 9, 1998, after the latter allegedly threw rubbish into the shop.

According to the prosecution, after Siva threw the rubbish, an altercation ensued between the duo during which Muthu picked up a knife lying in the shop and stabbed Siva.