Judgment

GOSWAMI, J.:- On July 30, 1968, Bimla, a hale and hearty young girl (19), indeed, by her right, legitimate wife of the accused, Ravinder Singh (23), accompanied on a rail journey her husband, who, after enjoying two months furlough at home, returned to his Air Force Station at Sirsa without her and without the least concern. She was found next morning nearby a wayside distant railway station with acid burns on her face and on other parts of the body with multiple injuries, incapacitated by the shock and affliction, to tell her gruesome story to the few persons who came by her. The only unchallenged thing was that she was pronounced dead in a hospital on July 31, 1968, at 8.45 P.M.

2. Did the husband cause the murder of his wife, is for a final judicial solution before us. The accused husband being charged under Section 302/34, I.P.C., along with some others obtained an acquittal from the Trial Judge. Government s conscience was roused and the High Court on the State s appeal entered his conviction under Section 302, I.P.C., shrinking, however, from administering the extreme penalty under the law. That is how the lifer is before us in this appeal as a matter of right under S