Judgment

UNTWALIA, J. - In relation to a land dispute appertaining to the field locally called Rambhatla chanu in survey number 324 within the limits of P. Kottalapalli hamlet of Penakalapadu Gooty taluk of Anantapur District in the State of Andhra Pradesh, a rioting took place and in the occurrence one Manchi Tirupala Reddy was killed. Some others were also injured. Ten persons were put on trial and were convicted for the various offences under the Penal Code by the trial Judge. Two separate appeals were filed before the High Court - One by accused numbers 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8 and 10 and the other by accused numbers 1, 6 and 9. The High Court allowed the appeals in part and modified the convictions of and the sentence imposed upon the appellants before it. All the ten accused filed a petition for special leave to appeal to this Court. This Court granted special leave to appeal in respect of accused Nos. 1, 6 and 9 only, respectively, named Chilamakur Nagireddi, Chilamakur Obulapathi and Boppala Ramireddi (who were petitioners 8, 9 and 10 in the special leave application), and that also limited "to the question of nature of the offences committed by them", and dismissed the special leav