Judgment

This appeal is directed against the judgment and order of the Punjab and Har­yana High Court in Criminal Appeal No. 242 DB/88. The High Court confirmed the conviction of the appellants under Section 148 and Sections 324, 325 and 302 IPC all read with Section 149 IPC recorded by the Sessions Court, Ambala in Sessions Case No. 22/87.

2. The appellants on the one hand and the two deceased—Bachittar Singh and Bachan Singh—on the other hand were distant collaterals and they had ‘baras’ situated side by side on the outskirts of their village. Near the common boundary of two ‘baras’, there was a ‘kikar’ tree and a dispute was going on between them since long as regards ownership of that tree. On June 5, 1987, at about 6.00 p.m., appellant No. 5—Swaran Kaur was seen by Bachittar Singh and Bachan Singh stand­ing near that kikar tree. They also saw Avtar Singh—appellant No. 4 cutting branches of that tree. So, Bachittar Singh and Bachan Singh went to that ‘bara’ and protested against Avtar Singh cutting the branches. That led to an exchange of hot words and abuses followed by an assault on Bachittar Singh and Bachan Singh. According to the prosecution case, seeing this assault on Ba