Legal Provisions of Section 429 of Indian Penal Code, 1860.
Mischief by killing or maiming cattle, etc., of any value or any animal of the value of fifty rupees:
Mischief by killing or maiming cattle etc. of any value or any other animal of the value of fifty rupees or upwards has been punished under this section. The section states that whoever commits mischief by killing, poisoning, maiming or rendering useless, any elephant, camel, horse, mule, buffalo, bull, cow, or ox of whatever value, or of any other animal worth fifty rupees or more, shall be punished with simple or rigorous imprisonment for a term extending up to five years, or with fine, or with both.
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This section requires commission of mischief by any of the four ways as stated also in section 428. However, some animals have been named in this section for which no value has been mentioned in case mischief is committed against any of these.
For any other kind of animals not mentioned specifically the amount must be fifty rupees or upwards if this section is to apply. This is a serious offence visited with sterner penalty. Fifty rupees is too meagre an amount in the present day. As a consequence a large number of cases would fall under this section. Mischief under the latter part of this section has thus indirectly become more severe than when the Code was enacted.
Since the section requires the commission of mischief, the ingredients of mischief as defined under section 425 must be present. Thus, there must be intention to cause or knowledge that the offender is likely to cause wrongful loss or damage.
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This requisite intention or knowledge must, therefore, be established under this section also, and thus where the accused intended to throw a stone at the complainant which accidentally fell on his calf causing its death, it was held that no offence under this section was committed since the requisite intention or knowledge on the part of the accused was absent. The offence under section 429 of the Indian Penal Code and under section 9 (1) read with section 50 of the Wild Life Protection Act, 1972 are substantially similar and as such the bar of double jeopardy would not operate.
The offence under this section is non-cognizable, bailable and compoundable when permitted by the court trying the case, and is triable by magistrate of the first class.