The Delhi HC on Friday (August 31) slapped seven years of rigorous imprisonment along with a fine of Rs 1 lakh to a man for disfiguring his wife’s face by attacking her with a kitchen knife and hitting her with a sil batta (grindstone).

“Merely because the kitchen knife and sil batta are readily available in most homes does not make them any less dangerous. A kitchen knife used on the vital parts of a person’s body can cause serious damage, like in the instant case where there are serious grievous incised wounds on the neck of the victim, and this itself is a clear demonstration of how dangerous a weapon a kitchen knife really is,” the bench of Justices S Muralidhar and Vinod Goel said.

The bench also said that the victim had suffered permanent disfiguration of her face.

“Indeed she continues to bear the scars of the brutal attack on her by the accused even till now, in every sense of the term,” it added.

The court was hearing two appeals—one by the husband Rakesh who had challenged his conviction under section 326 (Voluntarily causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons) and 342 (Voluntarily causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons or means) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). And the second appeal was filed by victim Nemwati challenging the trial court order convicting his husband under Section 307 IPC and converted that offence into one under Section 326 IPC and sentenced him accordingly.

—India Legal Bureau