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2010 Supreme(P&H) 1991
2010(3) LAW HERALD (P&H) 2183
IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA
Before
The Hon’ble Mr. Justice Kanwaljit Singh Ahluwalia
Criminal Revision No. 896 of 2002
Bakhtaur Singh & Ors.
v.
State of Punjab
{Decided on 08/07/2010}
For the Petitioners:Mr. A.P.S. Deol, Sr. Advocate with Mr. Davinder Bir Singh, Advocate.
For the Respondent:Mr. J.S. Bhullar, Assistant Advocate General, Punjab.
IMPORTANT POINT
Free Fight--In case of free fight, Section 149 IPC is not attracted.
Headnote:Indian Penal Code, 1860, S.323, 324, 325, 326, 148 and 149--Free Fight--Conviction--Sentence--In case of free fight, Section 149 is not attracted--Conviction of petitioners, for offence under Section 148 IPC is liable to be set aside and no petitioners can be convicted with aid of Section 149 IPC--Injury no. 1 on person of ‘D’ was on his head and underline bone was completely cut was attributed to petitioner ‘T’--Thus, he is held liable for offence under Section 326 IPC--Injuries no. 5 and 7, on person of ‘M’ were grievous in nature was attributed to ‘M’ and ‘R’--They had caused injuries from reverse side of gandasa and gandhali--They are substantively held liable for offence under Section 325 IPC--‘R’ had suffered incised injury on top of her head attributed to ‘J’, who is held responsible for offence under Section 324 IPC, whereas other petitioners are held responsible for offence under section 323 IPC--Sentence of one and a half year RI awarded by Additional Sessions Judge for offence under section 326 IPC to petitioner ‘T’ along with a fine of Rs.500/- maintained--Petitioners ‘R’ and ‘H’, had caused injuries falling within ambit of section 325 IPC--They are sentenced to undergo RI for a period of one year and three months and to pay a fine of Rs.500/- each--‘J’ had caused injury, which falls under section 324 IPC sentence of one year’s RI, awarded to him by trial Court, under section 324 IPC is maintained along with fine--Sentence awarded upon other accused under section 323 IPC, is maintained.
(Para 28, 29, 30 and 31)
Kanwaljit Singh Ahluwalia, J.:-The present revision petition has been preferred by Bakhtaur Singh, Harbans Singh, Hardesh Singh, Harmander Singh, Tota Singh sons of Jaswinder Singh, Resham Singh and Jagtar Singh, all residents of village Bhai Rupa. They were tried in a case FIR No. 9 dated 11.1.1991, registered at Police Station Dialpura, under Sections 326, 324, 323, 148 and 149 IPC, by the Court of Judicial Magistrate Ist Class, Phul.
2. The trial Court, vide its judgment dated 11.9.1999, held the petitioners guilty for the offence under Sections 323, 324, 326, 148 and 149 IPC and vide a separate order of even date, sentenced them as under:-
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Sr. Name of Offence under Sentence awarded
No. Accused Section
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1 All the accused 326 read with Rigorous imprisonment for a period of two
-petitioners Section 149 years and to pay a fine of Rs.500/- each, in
IPC default whereof, to further undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of three months each.
324 read with Rigorous imprisonment for a period of one
Section 149 year and to pay a fine of Rs.200/- each,
IPC in default whereof, to further undergo rigorous imprisonment or a period of two months each.
148 IPC Rigorous imprisonment for a period of one
year and to pay a fine of Rs.200/- each,
in default whereof, to further undergo rigorous
imprisonment for a period of one month each.
323 read with Rigorous imprisonment for a period of six Section 149 months and to pay a fine of Rs.100/- each,
IPC in default whereof, to further undergo rigorous
imprisonment for a period of one month each.
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3. All the sentences were ordered to run concurrently.
4. Aggrieved against the judgment of conviction and order of sentence, the petitioners had filed an appeal. The Court of Additional Sessions Judge, Bathinda, vide its judgment dated 3.5.2002, upheld the conviction of the petitioners and reduced their sentence, for the offence under Section 326 read with Section 149 IPC, from two years to one and a half years and to pay a fine of Rs.500/- each. However, the remaining sentences were kept intact.
5. Hence the present revision petition.
6. Briefly stated, the facts of the instant case are that a statement Ex.P1 of PW.2 Darshan Singh was recorded on 11.1.1991 by Ramesh Kumar, Assistant Sub Inspector, wherein he stated that he was a resident of village Bhai Rupa and was residing in a house built in the fields along with his brothers Major Singh, Jaswinder Singh and Mander Singh. Mander Singh was employed in Home Guard. On 11.1.1991, their turn of water had to commence at 7.48 A.M. and they had to take the same from Tota Singh. The complainant along with his brothers Major Singh and Jawinder Singh had gone to their fields in order to take their turn of water from the outlet of Dalip Singh, whose land had been taken on lease (theka) by Tota Singh. At that time, petitioners Bakhtaur Singh son of Jaswinder Singh, Jagtar Singh and Resham Singh, sons of Tota Singh were irrigating their fields, whereas petitioners Hardesh Singh, Harmander Singh and Harbans Singh were working in the fields and Tota Singh was standing near the kikkar trees. When the complainant intended to take his turn of water, he was restrained by petitioner Bakhtaur Singh and told him that his turn had not yet arrived at. The complainant replied that he was going to take turn of water in time, upon which Tota Singh exhorted to catch hold of complainant and his brothers for taking their turn of water and they be taught a lesson. Saying this, Tota Singh came near to the complainant and gave a kirpan blow
