IMPORTANT POINTS
In case of homicidal death monetary benefits cannot be equated with the life of a person.
Object of compensation is just to mitigate hardship caused to the victim’s family.

JUDGMENT

R. BANUMATHI, J.

Delay condoned and leave granted in both the special leave petitions.

2. These appeals arise out of the impugned judgment dated 16.08.2010 passed by the High Court of Punjab and Haryana at Chandigarh in Criminal Appeal No.514-SB/1998 whereby the High Court disposed of the appeal filed by the respondents-accused directing the reduction of sentence of the accused persons under Section 304 Part II IPC read with Section 149 IPC and Section 148 IPC to the period already undergone and further directing the accused Pyare Lal @ Hitender Pradeep and Manphool to deposit Rs.1,25,000/- each and directing other accused persons to deposit an amount of Rs.25,000/-each with the trial court with default clause and directing the trial court to disburse the said amount of compensation to the legal heirs of the deceased-Duli Chand.

3. Brief facts which led to the filing of these appeals are as under:-On 04.08.1993 complainant-Sher Singh (PW6) along with his elder brother Duli Chand were returning from Bus adda of village Devsar towards their house. No Sooner they reached the tyre puncture shop owned by Rajpal, they saw these accused persons–respondents, namely, Pyare Lal @ Hitender Pradeep (A-4) armed with lathi, Ramesh @ Ravinder Pardeep (A-1) armed with a jailly and Surender (A-2), Raj Kumar (A-3) and Manphool (A-5) also armed with lathi.

Fourth accused-Pyare Lal whooped (lalkar) stating that ‘Duli Chand should be taught a lesson for making a complaint against them before the panchayat’ and the accused persons assaulted Duli Chand. Accused-Pyare Lal @ Hitender Pradeep (A-4) gave lathi blow on the head of Duli Chand, Ramesh inflicted a jailly blow on the right arm of Duli Chand, Surender (A-2) hit Duli Chand with a lathi on the right hand. Accused Raj Kumar (A-3) gave a lathi blow on the hands of Duli Chand. Narender (A-6) gave a lathi blow on the right leg of Duli Chand while Manphool (A-5) gave a lathi blow on the head of Duli Chand. Due to the attack deceased sustained grievous injuries and fell down and all the accused persons dragged him inside the house of Bhundu. On hearing the screaming of the complainant-Sher Singh for help, Jai Singh and Roshan Lal came to the spot. Sher Singh (PW6) with the help of Jai Singh and Roshan Lal (PW7) had taken Duli Chand to General Hospital, Bhiwani. Duli Chand remained in coma and succumbed to injuries on 09.08.1993. On the basis of the complaint lodged by complainant-Sher Singh, FIR No.277 was registered under Sections 147, 148, 149, 323, 324 and 342 IPC. On the death of Duli Chand, the FIR was altered to Section 304 Part II IPC. On completion of investigation, chargesheet was filed against the accused persons.

4. The charges were framed against all the accused persons under Sections 148 and 302/149 IPC and all the accused pleaded not guilty. Upon consideration of the evidence adduced by the prosecution, the trial court vide judgment dated 11.06.1998 convicted all the six accused persons under Section 304 Part II IPC read with Section 149 IPC and sentenced each of them to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of seven years. The accused were also convicted under Section 148 IPC and were sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for two years. Being aggrieved by the judgment passed by the Sessions Court, accused persons filed Criminal Appeal No.514-SB/1998 before the High Court of Punjab and Haryana at Chandigarh wherein vide impugned judgment dated 16.08.2010, High Court reduced the sentence of imprisonment imposed on all the six accused persons under Section 304 Part II IPC read with Section 149 IPC and 148 IPC to the period already undergone by each of them and also imposed fine as indicated in paragraph 2. Being aggrieved by the reduction of sentence, the appellant Ravinder Singh son of the deceased-Duli Chand has preferred criminal appeal arising out of SLP (Crl.) No.1839 of 2012 assailing the correctness of the impugned judgment.

5. Learned counsel for the appellant-Ra