Judgment

SINHA, J. : This appeal by special leave is directed against the concurrent judgments and orders of the courts below convicting the appellant for the double murder of his mother Mst. Reoti Devi, aged about 65 years, and his infant son Sudhir, aged about 4 1/2 years, and sentencing him to death under S. 302, Indian Penal Code. There is also a conviction under S. 380 of the Indian Penal Code for the theft of his mother s jewelry and a sentence of two years rigorous imprisonment thereunder.

2. The facts of the case lie within a narrow compass and have been stated in great detail in the judgments below. It is only necessary to state for the purposes of this appeal that the appellant is the youngest of the three sons of a retired Deputy Collector who was so dissatisfied with his extravagant living that in his life-time he gave away the bulk of his valuable properties to his wife and his two elder sons, as also to the aforesaid infant son, Sudhir, of the appellant, thus excluding him from his patrimony. After his father s death, the mother appears to have had a great weakness for her erring son and in spite of the fact that he used to pester her with his continual demands for mone