JUDGMENT

MISRA, J.:— The appeal as well as the special leave petition are directed against the judgment of the High Court of Punjab and Haryana at Chandigarh dated 9th July, 1981. Criminal appeal has been filed by the complainant while the special leave petition has been filed by the State of Himachal Pradesh. Vinay Kumar and his mother Chhano Devi were convicted for the murder of Asha, the wife of Vinay Kumar by burning her alive and sentenced to life imprisonment by the learned Sessions Judge, Gurdaspur. On appeal by the accused, the High Court acquitted them by the impugned judgment.

2. The prosecution case set up at the trial was that the deceased Asha was married with Vinay Kumar in July, 1972. The marriage was an arranged marriage. It did not prove to be a success, the apparent cause for the failure of marriage was that Asha was only a matriculate and not cultured enough to move about in the society with the husband. To makeup this deficiency the deceased again resumed her studies and started attending college at Nagrota Bhagwan. While prosecuting her studies she was rebuked and abused and sometimes even thrashed, whenever she visited the house of her in laws. She, however, kept on suffering in the vain hope that in due course of time things might improve. There was, however, no improvement and she was fed up with the maltreatment and cruelty meted out to her in the in-laws house. She left the matrimonial home and started living with her parents sometime in the year 1975 or early 1976.

3. In 1977 Vinay Kumar filed a petition in the court of the District Judge, Kangra at Dharamshala under S. 13 of the Hindu Marriage Act for the dissolution of his marriage with the deceased on various grounds including one of desertion. The District Judge in the first instance tried for reconciliation between the spouses and as an interim arrangement Asha returned to her in-laws house in June 1978 on trial basis, while divorce petition was kept pending and adjourned to July 29, 1978. As the parties did not appear in the Court on the date fixed, it was presumed that they were living happily and the proceedings were, therefore, consigned to the record.

4. On 5th of August, 1978 at about 11 a. m. Kanwal Nain P.W. 4, Bil Bhandur P.W. 14, employee of the Post Office, which was just in front of the house of the accused at a distance of 10/-12 feet, and a number of other persons saw smoke coming out of the window of the house of the accused. When Bil Bhandur and others went to the house, they found the outer door locked. There was no other means of ingress to the house. After ashort while one Raj brought the key from Chhano Devi accused with which the lock was opened and entry gained into the house. Asha was found burning and after extinguishing the fire, she was removed to the local hospital.

5. Dr. O. P. Dutta attended her and sent an intimation of the incident to the incharge local Police Post. He recorded the statement of Asha on the out-patient register Ex. PL. Meanwhile Kesar Singh, Assistant Sub-Inspector, arrived there and after getting a certificate from Dr. Dutta, he also recorded her statement Ex. PU. From Civil Hospital, Kangra Asha was removed in a truck to a Civil Hospital in Dharamshala. (H.P.) where she breathed her last.

6. In her statement recorded by Dr. Dutta and Kesar Singh, the deceased disclosed that her clothes caught fire, while she was preparing tea. The police suspected no foul play and did not register any case. The father of the deceased Hanumant Dass, however, made a report on 7th Aug., 1978 and a case was registered on that basis. The accused were sent up for trial. When the case was pending in the Court of Sessions Judge, Dharamshala in Himachal Pradesh, the complainant moved an application to the SC. for transfer of the case from Himachal Pradesh to some other province. The case was transferred to a Court of competent jurisdiction at Gurdaspur in Punjab. The Sessions Judge, Gurdaspur convicted both the accused under S.