Judgment

Fazl Ali, J. - This is an appeal against the judgement of the High Court at Patiala upholding the conviction and sentence of the appellant, who was tried by the Sessions Judge of Sangrur for the offence of murder and sentenced to death.

2. The prosecution story is a somewhat long and complicated one, but ignoring unnecessary details, the material facts may be stated shortly as follows :

3. On the 5th October 1949, there was a quarrel between the appellant and one Darbara Singh, in the course of which the appellant attacked the latter with a phawra (a cutting instrument). About that time Gurmail Singh, the deceased person, returned to his house, which was close to the house of Darbara Singh, from his cotton field, where he had been working, in order to take tea for his companions who were still working in his field. The appellant asked Gurmail Singh to lend him a spear to enable him to kill Darbara Singh, but since the latter refused to do so, there ensued a quarrel between him and the appellant, in the course of which they exchanged abuses and grappled with each other, and the fight was stopped only by the intervention of certain persons present at the place. It appears that