Judgment

D.P. Wadhwa, J.—Sajjan Singh (Appellant in Criminal Appeal No. 137/97), Dule Singh and Meharban Singh (Appellants in Criminal Appeal No. 138/97) are aggrieved by judgment of the Madhya Pradesh High Court convicting them for offences under Section 302/149 Indian Penal Code (‘IPC’ for short) and sentencing them to undergo imprisonment for life.

2. Originally before the Sessions Court, there were 11 accused being tried including the appellants. Two of the accused were also charged for offence under Section 404 IPC. After the conclusion of the trial, Sessions Judge acquitted Banesingh and convicted rest of the 10 sen­tencing each of them to life imprisonment. These 10 went in appeal before the High Court. State also filed appeal against the acquittal of Banesingh. Appeals were heard by a Division Bench comprising of Shukla and Chitre, JJ. Both the Judges upheld the acquittal of Bane­singh and dismissed the appeal filed by the State. So far as the 10 appellants were concerned, the Judges were divided in opinion. While Chitre, J. gave his opinion that the conviction of all of them should be upheld and their appeal dismissed, Shukla J. felt that conviction of three of them should