Judgment

Ruma Pal, J.—This judgment disposes of three appeals which arise out of the same judgment of the Punjab and Haryana High Court. The appellant in the first appeal has challenged the judgment because it upheld his conviction under Section 323 and Sections 302/34 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) in res­pect of the murder of Kulwant Singh and Bidhi Shankar. The three appellants in the second appeal have also appealed against their conviction by the High Court for the same offence under Sections 148, 307/149, 323/149, 302 and 302/149 IPC. The appellant in the third appeal was the complainant and he is aggrieved by the judgment of the High Court because two of the accused were acquitted.

2. The case of the prosecution was that there was a long standing enmity between the accused and the deceased. Darshan Singh a relative of the accused had been murdered. Kulwant Singh and Bidhi Shankar had been charged with the murder, but had been released on bail. With the intention of avenging the murder of Darshan Singh the nine accused formed an unlawful assembly armed with guns, spears, lathis and axes and kirpans on 1st September 1989 near the road leading from Chammu Kalan to Ismailabad S