JUDGMENT

T.S. THAKUR, J.

1. These two appeals by special leave assail a common judgment and order dated 7th May, 2009 passed by a Division Bench of the High Court of Punjab and Haryana at Chandigarh whereby Criminal Appeal No.631 of 2000 filed by the appellants challenging their conviction for offences punishable under Sections 323, 325, 302 read with Section 149 of the IPC has been dismissed and the sentence of life imprisonment awarded to each one of them by the trial Court affirmed.

2. The prosecution case in a nutshell is that on 2nd July, 1998 at about 10 O’ clock in the morning Ved Pal and his brother Gopal, now deceased, were watering their fields in village Doongriwala, district Faridabad in the State of Haryana. At about 12.00 noon Jai Pal, son of Nihar Singh entered their field in which the two brothers had grown their paddy crop. Deceased-Gopal appears to have objected to Jai Pal’s trespass into the paddy crop to which objection Jai Pal gave an abusive reply insisting that he would pass through the paddy crop regardless of Gopal’s objection. While this altercation was going on between deceased-Gopal and Jai Pal, 10 to 12 persons appeared on the spot armed with lathis, ph