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Common Aggravations
A stab or a cut or any contused or lacerated wound or mental shock or any other hurt or injury calculated to interfere with the health or comfort of a person, caused in the foresaid circumstances, would be sufficient to constitute slight bodily harm. The nature of the instrument or means with which it is caused, or the manner how it is caused is, generally, immaterial. But if the offence is committed by an am proper or any other of the means specified in section 231 the ordinary punishment is substantially increased. Conversely, where the effect, considered both physically and morally, is of small consequence to the injured party, the ordinary punishment for slight bodily harm is reduced.
Common Aggravations
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The punishments prescribed for bodily harms under sections 230, 231, 232, 234 and 235 (1) and (2) (in effect, for all bodily harms except those which are slight and of small consequence) are increased by one degree when the harms is committed:
(a) on the person of the father, mother or any other legitimate and natural ascendant, or on the person of a legitimate and natural brother or sister, or on the person of the husband or wife, or on the person of the natural father or mother; or
(b) on the person of any witness or referee who shall have given evidence or an opinion in any suit, and on account of such evidence or opinion.
The reasons for these aggravations are obvious. In the cases at (a) the offender not only injures the right of personal safety and the integrity which belongs to every individual, but also offends against that special duty of love and good-feeling arising out of the bonds of close family relationships. In the cases at (b), a greater than the ordinary degree of protection is due to the persons giving evidence or an expert opinion in legal proceedings, thereby to ensure the freedom of such evidence or opinion in legal proceedings so essential to the proper administration of justice.
By the law, quite reasonably, provides (Sect. 236 (2)) that the increase of punishment shall not take place when the offender, without intent to cause harm to any particular person or with intent to cause harm to some other person, shall, by mistake or accident, cause harm to any of the persons mentioned above. In such case, the reasons for aggravation do not apply.
