IMPORTANT POINT
A right to defend does not include a right to launch an offensive, particularly when the need to defend no longer arrived.

JUDGMENT

Dr. Arijit Pasayat, J. —

1. Leave granted.

2. Challenge in this appeal is to the judgment of a Division Bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court dismissing the appeal (Crl. Appeal No.68-DB of 1998) so far as the appellants are concerned. However, co-accused Bhagmal was acquitted.

3. The appellants were convicted for offences punishable under Sections 148, 302 read with Section 149 and 323/149 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (in short ‘the IPC’) but they were acquitted of the charge under Section 506 IPC. Co-accused Bhagmal was convicted along with the appellants, but, as noted above, he was acquitted by the High Court.

4. The prosecution story, in a nutshell is as follows.

A case was registered on the basis of statement (Exh.P.L.) of Krishan (complainant-PW-5). As per his statement, joint land owned by his father Naurang (PW6) and his three brothers was earlier partitioned. In that partition, the land in which a well and a room had been constructed by Naurang, fell to the share of his brother Bhagmal and in lieu of it, he was to pay Rs.6600/- to Naurang. Inspite of repeated demands, he did not pay that amount and on December 30, 1994, he refused to pay the same. On December 30, 1994, at about 1 P.M., complainant-Krishan was standing at the door of his house and his brother Attar Singh (hereinafter referred to as ‘the deceased’) was standing in front of his house in the street. All the appellants, armed with ‘Lathis’, came there and started giving blows to the deceased saying that he would not be spared. Krishan came to rescue his brother, whereupon, appellant Raghbir Singh gave ‘Lathi’ blow on the right side of his chest. Appellant Mukhtiar Singh also inflicted a ‘Lathi’ blow hitting Krishan on the back side of his neck. He fell down on the ground and in that position appellant Kuldeep Singh gave him a ‘Lathi’ blow on his waist and appellant Raghbir Singh inflicted a ‘Lathi’ blow on his nose. On hearing the alarm raised by Krishan, his father Naurang (PW6) and his mother Smt. Lichhma came out of the house. Krishan PW-5 and Attar Singh the deceased also inflicted some injuries to the appellants in self-defence.

On December 30, 1994, Dr. Ramphal (PW-1) medico legally examined Krishan (PW-5) and found four contusions on his nose, back of right scapular region, right side of chest and the occipital region. As per opinion of the Doctor, the kind of weapon used was blunt. On the same day, Dr. Ramphal (PW-1) medico legally examined Attar Singh and found eight injuries on his person which were a lacerated wound on the left supra orbital ridge, an abrasion on the left eye, two contusions on left cheek and right side of forehead, bleeding on nose but no external injury, a tooth was missing in the lower jaw in frontal part, an abrasion on the left side of chest and an abrasion on left forearm. According to the Doctor, the kind of weapon used was blunt.

On December 31, 1994, Attar Singh succumbed to his injuries. Post mortem on his dead body was conducted by Dr. A.P. Sharma (PW-2) on December 31, 1994. According to his opinion, the cause of death was due to the injuries on the head and spleen which were ante mortem in nature and sufficient to cause death in the ordinary course of nature.

After completion of investigation, challan against the accused was presented in the Committing Court. In order to prove the offences charged against the accused-appellants, the prosecution examined fourteen witnesses.

After closure of the prosecution evidence, statements of the accused were recorded under Section 313 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (in short the ‘Cr.P.C.’) in which they denied the prosecution allegations and pleaded innocence. Plea taken by them is that Krishan and Attar Singh had gone to the house of accused-Bhagmal armed with lathis and had caused injuries to Bhagmal and accused-Kuldeep Singh as well as Smt. Krishna wife of Kartar Singh and Smt. Shakuntla wife of Mukhtiar Singh. The defence plea taken by the accused is that on