JUDGMENT

M.K. Mukherjee, J.-Jaswant Singh, the respondent in these two appeals, was convicted by the Sessions Judge, Ferozepur under Sections 302 I.P.C. and 27 of the Arms Act for committing the murder of Harnek Singh on August 24, 1990 by firing at him. For the conviction under Section 302 I.P.C. he was sentenced to imprisonment for life and fine, and for the other conviction he was sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for three years and fine with a direction that the substantive sentences shall run concurrently. In the appeal preferred by him the High Court set aside his above convictions and instead thereof convicted him under Section 304 (Part I) I.P.C. For the conviction so recorded he was sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for seven years and fine. Assailing his acquittal of the offences under Sections 302 I.P.C. and 27 of the Arms Act these two appeals have been filed : one by the wife of the deceased and the other by the State of Punjab.

2. At the material time Balkaran Singh (P.W.2) was the principal of the Government Senior Secondary School, Talwandi Bhai and Harnek Singh (the deceased) and the respondent were teachers of that school. Sometimes before the death of Harnek Singh, the respondent had sent a letter (Ext. PE) to Smt. Prithpal Kaur, wife of P.W.2, bringing to her notice that her husband was having illicit relations with some lady teachers of the school and that the deceased and one Rajinder Singh (another teacher) were working as his pimps. On August 24, 1990 P.W.2 had convened a meeting of the staff members of the school in the school premises to remove the misunderstandings that might have arisen from the above letter of the respondent.

3. According to the prosecution case when the meeting was in progress with the deceased and other members of the staff present there Darshan Singh (P.W.3), brother of the wife of the deceased, came there to meet him. A little later the respondent, who was not invited to attend the meeting, appeared on the scene. When the deceased took exception to his such uncalled for presence the respondent took out his revolver from the pocket of his trousers and fired three shots aiming at him, as a result of which he fell down dead. The respondent then made good his escape with the revolver. Leaving P.W.3 to guard the dead body P.W.2 proceeded on foot to lodge a report at the police station. On his way he met S.I. Sukhwinder Singh, in-charge of Police Post Talwandi and handed over to him a written report of the incident. On that report a case was registered and S.I. Sukhwinder Singh took up investigation. He held inquest upon the dead body of Harnek Singh inside the school premises and forwarded it for post mortem examination. In course of the investigation he arrested the respondent on August 27, 1990 and from his person recovered a .32 bore revolver, with its license and five live cartridges. He sent those seized articles to the Forensic Science Laboratory for examination by an expert. On completion of investigation he submitted charge-sheet against the respondent.

4. The respondent pleaded not guilty to the charges levelled against him; and in his examination under Section 313 Cr.P.C. stated, inter alia, as under :

"I treat the wife of Balkaran Singh as my sister and on coming to know about the bad acts of Balkaran Singh I wrote a letter to his wife which is Ex.PE, the contents of which were disclosed by Balkaran Singh to Harnek Singh prior to the date of occurrence. On 24.8.90, when I came to school premises at about 7.15 A.M. Harnek Singh had an altercation with me. He was in great rage and fury. He abused me and then there was exchange of abuses. Harnek Singh caught hold of a hockey stick from a student, named Chamkaur Singh s/o Harnek Singh and started giving the blows with it, which hit on the upper part of thing, fore-head and other part of body while I kept on retreating to ward off the blows. My turban also fell on the spot. I took out the revolver, which I used to keep with me l