JUDGMENT

NATARAJAN, J.:— These three Appeals by Special Leave by the State of Uttar Pradesh are directed against a common judgment rendered by the Allahabad High Court in Criminal Appeal No. 896 of 1975, Referred Case No. 35 of 1975 and connected Criminal Appeals Nos. 892 and 893 of 1975. For the sake of convenience we will refer to the respondents in the three appeals in the order of their array in the Sessions Court. The respondents in the three appeals are respectively Accused 1, 16 and 2; Accused 3 to 12 and 17 to 19; and Accused 13 to 15.

2. All the 19 accused were convicted by the Additional Sessions Judge, Kumaun for offences punishable under Sections 302 read with Sections 149, 396, 201 read with Sections 149,148 and 147, Indian Penal Code. Accused 1, 2 and 16 were sentenced to death and the rest of the accused were sentenced to imprisonment for life for the conviction under Section 302 read with Section 149, I.P.C. For the conviction under Section 396, I.P.C., all the accused except accused 13 to 15 were sentenced to pay a fine of Rs. 500. For the convictions under Sections 147, 148 and 201 read with Section 149, I.P.C., no seperate sentences were awarded. The 19 accused preferred three appeals, viz., Criminal Appeals Nos. 896, 892 and 893 of 1975 against their convictions and sentences and the Sessions Judge made a reference under Section 366, I.P.C., for confirmation of the death sentence awarded to Accused 1, 2 and 16. The High Court allowed all the appeals and dismissed the reference and set aside the conviction and sentences and set the accused at liberty. Against the common judgment of the High Court, the State has preferred these appeals.

3. All the accused persons except Accused 12, 13 and 14 trace their ancestry to a common ancestor by name Jamuna Ram. Accused 13 is the daughter-in-law of Accused 15 and Accused 14 is the wife of Accused 6. Accused 12 is the maternal uncle of Accused 18. Of the two deceased, Kesho Bai was the daughter of the common ancestor Jamuna Ram and the other deceased Shital Das was her husband.

4. Notwithstanding the relationship between the accused and the deceased they were on inimical terms for a number of years. The enmity arose on account of one Tribeni Das Bhagat, one of the common ancestor Jamuna Ram giving 5 acres of land in Village Jogipur and another 5 acres of land in Village Gobra to his sister Kesho Bai (deceased) and her husband Shital Das (deceased). Mithoo Ram, the father of Accused 1 and 16 wanted the lands for himself and hence he is said to have murdered Tribeni Das Bhagat. Thereafter Mithoo Ram and his sons turned their wrath on Shital Das and Kesho Bai. They falsely implicated Shital Das in a case of murder and the case ended in acquittal. They then attempted to murder Shital Das and Kesho Bai and two cases were registered under Section 307, I.P.C., and they were pending trial. There were also proceedings under Section 107, Cr. P.C., against Accused 1, 16, 17 and some others. Besides there were several other criminal cases between the deceased and the accused.

5. The fatal attacks on Shital Das and Kesho Bai took place on October 26, 1973. Two or three days earlier Accused 1, 3 and 16 to 18 had come out of prison on parole. On the day of occurrence, at about 2.30 P.M. Shital Das and Kesho Bai and two of their sons Ram Swarup (P.W. 1) and Ram Kishore (P.W. 6) were in the hut of Shital Das. Their another son, Ram Das (P.W. 7) was outside the hut. At that time Accused 13 to 15 went to the hut of Shital Das and told him that they had come to seek a compromise with him. Two or three minutes later Accused 1 followed by the other accused reached the hut of Shital Das. Accused 1 was having a. D. B.B.L. gun and Accused 2, 3, 8, 11, 17 and 18 were having guns with single barrel. Accused 4 to 6 had kirpans and Accused 7, 8, 9 and. 19 were having lathis.

6. After putting Shital Das off-guard by the alleged compromise talk Accused 15 managed to remove his D.B.B.L. gun and a belt of c