Judgement

Appeal (No. 8i of 1944), by special leave, from a judgment of the High Court (April 20, 1944) dismissing an appeal from a judgment of the Additional Sessions Judge of Amritsar (January 21, 1944) convicting the appellant of murder under s. 302 read with s. 149 of the Indian Penal Code.

The following facts are taken from the judgment of the Judicial Committee. The appellant was charged before the Additional Sessions Judge along with thirteen others with the murder of one Sohan Singh. The Sessions Judge convicted seven of the prisoners and sentenced them all to death, and acquitted the remaining seven. All the convicted persons appealed, and the High Court (Beckett and

A. N. Bhandari JJ.) upheld the conviction and sentence on the appellant; they upheld the conviction of one other of the prisoners but substituted a sentence of transportation for life for that of death, and quashed the convictions of the other appellants.

The murder took place at the Gorewala well, in the village of Mianpur, where the murdered man was lying on a cot. There were several persons called who alleged that they were eye witnesses. Among them was a "patwari," Lachhman Das, who happened to be at the v