Judgment

P. JAGANMOHAN REDDY, J.:- The High Court of Bombay reversed the order of acquittal of 1st and 2nd Appellant passed by the Additional Sessions Judge for Greater Bombay and convicted and sentenced each of them to life sentence for an offence of murder under Section 302 read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code. Against this Judgment the Appellants have come up in an Appeal before us by special leave.

2. The prosecution case is that the deceased Shantaram Sakharam Chawan, Dinker Pednekar P. W. 1. Sadu Shettey, P. W. 8 and Krishnan Chandan P. W. 10 as well as the first accused Keshav Gangaram Navge and one Gopal Parab were working in the Digvijay Mills at Bombay. In the Mills there were two workers Unions, one was Rastriya Mill Mazdur Sangh (also known as INTUC) hereinafter called Mazdur Sangh and the other was Girni Kamgar Union hereinafter called the Kamgar Union. A large number of workers belonged to the Mazdur Sangh while the Kamgar Union which was stated to have communist affiliation did not have sufficient following and was generally engaged in trying to get more workers to join it in which attempt it came into conflict with the Mazdur Sangh. The deceased Shantaram and the prosecution witnesses Dinker, Sadu Shettey and Krishnan Chandan belonged to the Kamgar Union while the accused Keshav and Gopal who is not examined, belonged to the Mazdur Sangh.

3. It appears that the Digvijay Mills had declared bonus for the year 1963 in consultation with the Government and the leaders of the Mazdur Sangh but the Kamgar Union was of the view that that bonus was very low, and blamed the Mazdur Sangh for not making sufficient efforts to procure a higher rate of bonus. This dispute between the two Unions went on for about a year before the incident. On 19th October, 1965 the deceased and the prosecution witnesses referred to above and the accused and Gopal Parab hereinafter referred to as Gopal worked in the 1st shift which started at 7 a m. and ended at 3 p. m. The prosecution case is that after the first shift was over the workers gathered in the Mill compound in the open space in front of the Manager s office and wanted the Manager to give an explanation as to why the bonus for the year 1963 was low and how it was that the Mazdur Sangh had been party to the agreement arrived at between the owners and the leaders of that Mazdur Sangh. At that meeting which it is said was not pre-arranged but spontaneous, the deceased and Dinker spoke on behalf of the Kamgar Union. They said that though the Mills have made good profit in the year 1963 the bonus declared by them were very low and wanted to know from the Manager as to why that bonus was so low. The Manager told the workers that the bonus was declared after consultation with the Mazdur Sangh leaders and it was justified. The first accused also spoke at the meeting as representative of the Mazdur Sangh. He told them that the bonus was decided in consultation with the Mill owners and the leaders of the Mazdur Sangh, that he as ordinary worker of the Mazdur Sangh could not give any explanation as to why the bonus for 1963 was low. The workers however, insisted that the Manager should send for the Mazdur Sangh leaders and should be asked to give their explanation. The Manager accordingly phoned the Mazdur Sangh office and asked them to send their representative to address the meeting but the Mazdur Sangh told the Manager that they were not in a position to send anybody from the office and if any worker wanted to know the real position they should be directed to the Mazdur Sangh Office. This message the Manager conveyed to the workers but the workers were in no mood to go to the Mazdur Sangh Office. After some discussion amongst the workers the meeting came to an end at about 5.30 p. m. After the meeting the deceased Shantaram, Dinker, Sadu Shettey left the Mills to go to the Bus stop which is some distance away from the Mills as Sadu Shettey wanted to go by bus to Chembur where he lived