JUDGMENT

Allsop, J. - The appellants Perana, Mewa, Happu and Toiyan have been sentenced to death tinder Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code for murdering one Bhikam Singh. They have appealed and we also have before us the reference made by the learned Sessions Judge on the subject of the confirmation of the sentence. There can be no doubt that Bhikam Singh was attacked and killed on the morning of July 10, 1935. The story for the prosecution is that he had been into the fields to relieve himself and was returning when be was attacked by the appellants who had a grudge against him because he being the headman of the village had accused them of committing thefts and had threatened them.

2. The story for the defence is that Perana alone caused the injuries which resulted in the death of Bhikam Singh and that he caused those injuries in exercise of the right of private defence. The story is that Bhikam Singh had dumped some rubbish in Perana's field and that he got angry when Perana remonstrated with him and asked him to remove it. It is said that he first attacked Perana with a lathi and then when Perana seized that, picked up a spade and that thereupon Perana hit him with a lathi in o