The term ‘Murder’ traces its origin form the Germanic word ‘morth’ which means secret killing. Murder means when one person is killed by another person or a group of persons who have a pre-determined intention to end life of the former. An offence will not amount to ‘Murder’ unless it includes an offence which falls under the definition of culpable homicide as per the definition of ‘Murder’ under IPC. All murders are culpable homicide but all homicides are not murders. Section 299 and Section 300 of Indian Penal Code deal with murder. The word homicide is supposedly derived from Latin where ‘homo’ means man and ‘cida’ means killing. Thus, homicide means the killing of a man by a man. Homicide can be lawful or unlawful. Culpable homicide is punishable by law and is further divided into two categories that are culpable homicide amounting to murder and culpable homicide not amounting to murder. The ingredients to commit a murder are causing death with an intention of causing death followed by doing an act where there should be an intention to cause such bodily injury that is likely to cause death and the act must be done with the knowledge that the act is likely to cause the death of another. If the offender is deprived of the power of self-control due to sudden and grave provocation or when the act is committed in order to defend oneself from further harm is an exception. All murders are culpable homicide but the vice-versa is not true. Ever since the IPC was enacted, this distinction as to which case will fall under which category is a perennial question with which courts are often confronted. On a plain reading of the relevant provisions of the Code, it appears that the given cases can be conveniently classified into two categories but when it comes to actual application, the courts are often confronted with this dilemma. This confusion often emerges when it is difficult to interpret from the evidence whether the intention was to cause merely bodily injury which would not make out an offence of murder or there was a clear intention to kill the victim making out a clear case of an offence of murder. The most confusing aspect is intention as in both the provisions the intention is to cause death. Hence, you have to consider the degree of intention of offenders. If the person is killed in cold-blood or with planning then it is murder because the intention to kill is in high degree and not out of sudden rage or provocation. On other hand, if the victim is killed without pre-planning, in sudden fight or in sudden anger because of somebody’s provocation or instigation, then such a death is called culpable homicide. Hence, whether the act done is culpable homicide or murder is a question of fact. The courts have time and again taken efforts to differentiate between the two offences the end result of the two being same, intention behind the offence being the important factor of consideration.