The Court upheld convictions for forgery and related offences, emphasizing that the burden of proof shifts when an individual has not been heard from for an extended period, and hearsay evidence requires careful evaluation.

JUDGMENT :

Mahabir Singh Sindhu, J.

Present petition has been filed, under Section 401 of Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (for short 'Cr.P.C') against judgment of conviction and order of sentence dated 21.07.2010 and 27.02.2013, passed by learned Judicial Magistrate First Class (for short 'JMIC') and upheld by learned Additional Sessions Judge, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar (Nawanshahar) (for short 'ASJ'), whereby petitioners were convicted and sentenced in the following manner:-

All the substantive sentences were ordered to run concurrently.

2. The allegations, as noticed by learned ASJ, in para 2 of the judgment would be as under:-

'FIR No. 22 dated 25.06.1996 under Section s 419 , 420, 467, 468, 471 and 120-B Indian Penal Code, 1860 (for short ' IPC '), at Police Station Rahon, District SBS Nagar, was registered on the basis of statement made by Joginder Kaur wife of Harbans Singh that she is resident of Sheikhupur Bagh. Her marriage took place in 1941 with Harbans Singh son of Gujar Singh Saini, resident of Sheikhupur Bagh. Her husband after about one year of marriage had joined the Army and since after two years of marriage he did not come to her house; nor visited any relation. She does not know anything about him as to whether he is dead or alive. She has no issue. Her husband never met her after 1943. He owned 50 kanal 18 marlas of land in village Sheikhupur Bagh, which is being cultivated by her on batai through Bawa Singh @ Charan Singh son of Chhajju Singh, resident of Sheikhupur Bagh since long. Being old and having no issue, she is living in the house of Bawa Singh and he is providing her meals etc. and money for expenses. Charan Dass son of Dalipa Ram, resident of village Tajowal, who is working with co-operative society, Dopalpur forged a passbook of the society in the name of her husband and has been doing transactions on his (Harbans Singh's) behalf by forging his signatures. Tara Singh, sarpanch of her village and his brother Ajit Singh, both sons of Amar Singh had managed a person to impersonate Harbans Singh and created a forged Will in favour of above Tara Singh, fraudulently and dishonestly with an intention to grab his property and in this conspiracy they have associated some other persons also. This forged Will was attested by Bhajan Singh Lambardar son of Harnam Singh Rajput of village Jadla and Parkash Singh son of Amar Chand resident of village Sajjawalpur. They had made some other person to impersonate Harbans Singh, whose name she does not know and thus forged the Will dated 07.04.1992 and grabbed her land. Tara Singh and his brother Ajit Singh had further conspired with Chowkidar Partapa Ram son of Devi Ditta resident of village Bagh and had got entered a false date of death of Harbans Singh in the Chowkidara register of Partapa Ram in the year 1992, by Dalbir Singh son of Pritam Chand, ad-dharmi of Tajowal, but in fact Harbans Singh, never came back after 1943. Dalbir Singh was an employee of the Co-operative Society, Dopalpur and Tara Singh accused was its President in 1992. She has no relationship of any kind with Tara Singh; nor Harbans Singh was related to him in any way. Tara Singh, Ajit Singh residents of Sheikhupur Bagh, Charan Dass resident of Tajowal, Secretary Co-operative Society Dopalpur, Chowkidar Partapa Ram and Dalbir Singh, residents of Bagh, Bhajan Singh lambardar resident of village J