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, ke