HANSARIA, J.:- The occurrence which had seen the death of Gurcharan Singh had taken place at about noon of 27-6-1981 in village Barawal of district Sangrur, Punjab. The prosecution case is that PW3 Karnail Singh and his brothers had applied for allotment of about 50 bighas unallotted (Bachat) land. This prayer was allowed and the possession of the land was delivered to the appellants about 20 days before 27th June on which date Karnail Singh and his brother PW4 Jarnail Singh and their father PW9 Gurdev Singh as well as the deceased Gurcharan Singh, were preparing wats in the land. Daljit Singh, brother of Karnail Singh, brought food for the party after taking which they retired towards the shade of keekar tree. At that point of time it is alleged that an unlawful assembly consisting of nine persons variously armed came and raised Lalkara that nobody should be allowed to go alive and they should be taught a lesson for getting allotted the Bachat land. In the attack which followed appellants Balbir Singh and Jawala Singh caused injuries with gandasa on the head of the deceased, and appellant Harinder Singh on his legs. Gurcharan Singh fell down on the receipt of the blows, and while he was lying fallen on the ground, Surinder Singh (since acquitted) and appellant Bhagwan Singh started causing injuries to him with the weapons they were armed. The aforesaid PWs. stepped forward to rescue Gurcharan Singh when one Jagdev Singh gave a gandasa blow on the head of Karnail Singh (PW3) and one Rajinder Singh on his right collar bone. On this Karnail Singh fell down when he was given more blows. Appellants Bahadur Singh and Mohinder Singh caused injuries to Gurdev Singh (PW9) and Jarnail Singh (PW4). After having so dealt with the complainant party, Balbir Singh proclaimed that the object had been accomplished, whereafter the accused party made good its escape. But before that some of the appellants had received injuries at the hands of the Karnail Singh and his companions.

2. Gurcharan Singh and the injured were taken in a tractor-trolley to Civil Hospital Dhuri where Gurcharan Singh was declared dead Karnail Singh went to police Station to Dhuri which was Was at it distance of about 3 miles. The information was lodged at about 3 p.m. which set the law in motion and nine persons in all were booked for trial under various sections of law including Sections 302/149, 325/149. 324/149 IPC. All of them came to be convicted under these sections of law along with some others by Sessions Judge, Sangrur.

3. The convicted persons preferred three different appeals before the High Court of Punjab and Haryana, all of which were heard together. By the impugned judgment the High. Court acquitted 3 appellants before it - they being aforesaid Surinder Singh, Rajinder Singh alias Bawa and Jagdev Singh. Convictions of the appellants Jawala Singh, Balbir Singh, Bhagwan Singh, Harinder Singh, Bahadur Singh and Mohinder Singh under Sections 325/149 and 324/149 were set aside, while their convictions inter alia under Section 302/149, IPC were maintained.

4. Bhagwan Singh approached this Court by filing Crl. Appeal 245/83. whereas Jawala Singh, Harinder Singh and Balbir Singh are the appellants in Crl. Appeals 687-688/83. The SLP of Bahadur Singh and Mohinder Singh was dismissed on 18-4-1983. The review petition came to be also dismissed on 18-8-83. Thereafter the SLP of Jawala Singh, Balbir Singh and Harinder Singh was admitted on 28-11-83. Bahadur Singh and Mahinder Singh felt that by dismissing their SLP they were discriminated and filed Writ Petition (Crl.) 544/86, which was orderd to be tagged with the aforesaid appeals.

5. All the three appeals and the writ petition having raised common qustions of land and fact were heard together and are being disposed of by this judgment.

6. The basic submission advanced on behalf of the appellants/writ petitioners is that they had acted in self defence and as such even if any offence was committed by them the same would at