Judgment

VENKATARAMA AYYAR, J.: The appellant was convicted by the First Class Magistrate, Hoogly for an offence under section 354, I.P.C. and sentenced to two years rigorous imprisonment. On appeal the Sessions Judge, Hoogly, confirmed both the conviction and the sentence, and a revision petition preferred to the High Court was rejected. This matter now comes before us on special leave under Article 136.

2. The facts which are not in dispute may first be stated.

Smt. Parul Bhattacharya, P.W. 6, is the wife of C.W. 1, who was employed in the Sodepur colliery. She came to Calcutta for confinement, and after delivery she started to rejoin her husband and boarded the Moghalsarai Passenger on 11-9-1951. She was escorted by a relation of hers, Rabindra Narayan Chakrabarti, P.W. 5. They got into an interclass compartment.

Another lady, Jyotsna Das, P.W. 9, travelling by the same train to see her father who was ill at Barakar, got into the same compartment at Howrah. She was escorted by P.W. 1, a friend of her father. There were some other passengers besides; but they go down at Panduah, leaving P. Ws. 1,5,6 and 9 as the sole occupants of the compartment.

The appellant who was also travelling