Judgement

Appeal (No. 15 of 1942), by special leave, from a judgment of the High Court (December 22, 1939) confirming the con viction of the appellant for abetment of forgery under s. 466 read with s. 109 of the Indian Penal Code, and the sentence of three years rigorous imprisonment passed on him by the Sessions Judge of the Santhal Parganas (September 8, 1939).

The following facts are taken from the judgment of the Judicial Committee The appellant was charged with abetting one Jagannath Singh and one Matuk Chandra Das in forging a certain decree sheet and compromise petition, which were court records, and was found guilty by the Sessions Judge of the Santhal Parganas, and that conviction was upheld by the High Court. In 1934, the appellant, one Buchai, and his son Khudi, were parties to a suit for the partition of their joint family property, a suit which was eventually compromised. To effect their purpose the parties, on December 13, 1935, filed a compromise petition in accordance with which a decree of the court was drawn up and signed on the twenty-third of the same month. It was common ground that a certain plot of land situate in Jasidih Bazar, and numbered 67, was not part