D.S.TEWATIA, J.

1. Criminal Revision No.798 of 1980 in the first instance came up for hearing before Punchhi, J. who referred it to the larger bench by his order dt. 8th Oct. 1982. The case then came up for hearing before a Division Bench to which besides Punchhi, J. I was a party. We referred the case to the larger Bench by our order dt. 2nd Feb. 1984.

2. Criminal Revision No.791 of 1983 which the admitting bench ordered to be heard along with Criminal Revision No.798 of 1980 came to be placed before the Division Bench along with the same and in view of the reference order in the latter revision petition the former too came to be referred to the larger Bench.

3. Criminal Revision No.1347 of 1982 was referred to the larger Bench by Bains, J. and the Division Bench comprising of Prem Chand Jain, Acting Chief Justice and I. S. Tiwana, J. vide their order dt. 30th Jan. 1984, referred it to a still larger Bench. That is how all the three aforesaid criminal revisions are placed before us for decision of some legal questions only. Since the questions of law that require decision are identical in all the three revision petitions, a common judgment is proposed.

4. The questions of