( 1 ) THE appellants Laxman Kumar aged 25, Subhash Chander aged 28 and Smt. Shakuntala aged 53 were sent up for trial for an offence under section 302 of the Indian Penal Code. The charge against them was that on the 1st December, 1980 at about 9 p. m. they in furtherance of a common intention had caused the death of Sudha Goel (wife of the first accused ). The learned Additional Sessions Judge,who tried the case found all the accused guilty of the offence charged with and has sentenced them to death. The accused have come in appeal. There is also the reference for confirmation of the death sentence. This judgment shall dispose of both the appeal and the reference. Laxman Kumar and Subhash Chander are brothers and Smt. Shakuntala their mother. The deceased Sudha was married to Laxman Kumar on 18th February 1980. After the marriage the couple started residing at 9-B, Janta Flats, Ashok Vihar, Phase III. Subhash Chader is the eldest brother. He is married and has two Children, D. W. 5 Madhu Goel, is the wife of Subbash Chander. Laxman Kumar has two younger brothers, namely, Vinod and Ram Avtar. He further has two unmarried sisters who lived in Barot, Meerut District with the parents, that is, Shakuntala and Srinivas.

( 2 ) SUBHASH and his family and Laxman Kumar with his wife resided on the ground floor (9-B) and Vinod and Ram Avtar resided on the first floor (9-D ). P. W. I. Jaspal Singh resided in. the adjoining house on the first floor (10-C ). Public Witness. 2 Satish Chopra resided in 7-5. Public Witness. B. Tarsem Jain resided at 8-A (adjoining to 9-B ). Two sisters of the deceased were married in Delhi. They are Smt. Gayatri Devi (D. W. 3) and Sneh Lata Gupta alias Shanno (P. W. 6) Public Witness. 3 with her husband Shri Pawan Kumar Goel resided at house No. 7376 Prem Nagar and Sneh Lata with her husband Shri Damodar Dass Gupta at C/48/b Janta Flats; Hari Nagar. The rest of the family of the deceased including the mother Public Witness. 7 Naraini Devi and the brother Dinesh Kumar (P. W. 8) resided at Calcutta. The deceased was in family way and she was expected to deliver a child within about a, week of the occurrence. Dr. Bharat Singh who performed post-mortem on the dead body. of Sudha had found in the uterus a full term male dead foetus without any abnormality. Prosecution version of the occurrence : The case for the prosecution as unfolded by Public Witness. 1 Jaspal Singh is that 1st December, 1980 at about 9 p. m. he was standing near the window in the back room of his house. He beared the cries of a female bachao BACHAO . He peeped Out of the window which overlooks the courtyard of he house of the accused and he saw flames. He ran down the house. At the same time Tersem Jain, Satish Chopra, Gurcharan Singh Arora, etc. also came. He saw Laxman Kumar accused closing the door from inside. (Note:-the enterance door to the house opens outside the passage), that he and others opened the door and went inside the house, that he saw Subhash accused putting his hand on the latch of the door which opened in the courtyard (there is a door connecting the living room and the courtyard. The door leading to the courtyard opens inside the room), that he and other pushed Subhash and opened the door and went inside the courtyard, that he saw Sudha in standing Position a flame, that he first attempted to extinguish the fire by pulling the saree from the body of Sudha, that a gunny bag was lying nearby arid he and Tarseor Jain picked up the gunny bag and attempted to extinguish the fire by nibbing the gunny beg around the body of Sudha, that within a minute or two Satish Chopla brought a blanket and he and others wrapped the blanket around the body of Sudha and. extiogaisb the fire, that they brought Sudha in the room of the accused where Shankuntala, mother- in-law of Sudha was standing. On seeing Shakuntala Devi, Sudha shouted that she had sprinkled kerosene oil on her and she, along with Laxman and Subhash had set