Apex court cautions against use of guns during marriages

The Supreme Court has cautioned over growing use of guns for celebratory fire during marriage functions, which often results in death due to accidental firing, turning merriment into mourning.

Using guns during marriage functions for blank firing has been prevalent in some parts of the country. It is even considered as a status symbol.
 
Dealing with a case in which one person died due to accidental firing, the court said people carrying arms must show a sense of responsibility and avoid using them during marriage functions.

A bench of Justices B S Chauhan and S A Bobde awarded seven years jail term to Kanwar Pal for opening fire in a negligent manner at a marriage ceremony, resulting in the death of one Ramayan Prasad in 1998 at Udham Singh Nagar in Uttarakhand.

“Everybody, who carries a gun with live cartridges and even others know that firing a gun and that too in the presence of several people is likely to cause death, as indeed it did.

Guns must be carried with a sense of responsibility and caution and are not meant to be used in such places like marriage ceremonies,” the bench said. The apex court held Pal guilty of culpable homicide not amounting to murder under Section 304 Part II of the Indian Penal Code.

Taking a lenient view, the bench set aside the sentence of life term awarded to the petitioner by the Uttarakhand high court as well as trial court. The court noted that there was no intention on the part of the petitioner to kill anyone when he opened fire.

The bench, however, noted that it could also not be said that the firing was done without knowledge that it was likely to cause death.