Point of Law:
Section 34 IPC is intended to meet a case in which it may be difficult to distinguish the acts of individual members of a party who act in furtherance of the common intention of all or to prove exactly what part was taken by each of them. The principle which the section embodies is participation in some action with the common intention of committing a crime; once such participation is established, Section 34 is at once attracted.

JUDGMENT :

Vikas Kunvar Srivastav, J.

These three criminal appeals have arisen out from the judgment of Trial Judge, the Additional Sessions Judge (Fast Track Court), No.7 in Sessions Trial No.431 of 1985, dated 03.02.2009, whereby the accused-appellants, namely Ram Pal, Lala Ram and Babu Ram are convicted of the offence punishable under Section 302 IPC read with Section 34 of the IPC and awarded with sentence to undergo life imprisonment with fine to the tune of Rs.5,000/-each. In case of failure to pay the fine, they are further sentenced to undergo imprisonment of six months.

1. The Criminal Appeal no.371 of 2009 is preferred by appellant, ‘Babu Ram’, represented by Sri Kapil Mishra, Advocate assisting learned Senior designate Sri Jyotindra Mishra, Advocate. The criminal Appeal No.577 of 2009 is preferred by ‘Ram Pal’, who is represented by learned counsel Sri Anil Kumar Pandey in the capacity of Amicus Curiae. The Criminal Appeal No.655 of 2009 is preferred by ‘Lala Ram’ who is represented by learned counsel Sri. U.P. Singh.

2. Initially, a Case Crime No.48 of 1985 was registered on 4.4.1985 at 7:30 p.m. in Police Station 'Behta Gokul', District 'Hardoi' under Section 302 read with Section 34 of the I.P.C. upon the information of Chhotey Lal, who is further examined by the Trial Court as prosecution witness no.1. The written complaint was directed against: (1) Raj Pal (2) Ram Pal, both sons of Bihari R/o Police Station Behta Gokul, District Hardoi (3) Lal Ram (4) Babu Ram, both sons of Digga R/o village Paitapur, Police Station Pali, District Hardoi.

3. When the first charge-sheet was submitted excluding the name of two named accused Lala Ram and Babu Ram by the Police before the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Hardoi, he committed the case, as the same was triable by the Sessions Judge on 17.07.1985. It comes out from the judgment of learned Trial Judge dated 02.01.1987 that Lala Ram and Babu Ram were summoned for trial along with the charge-sheeted accused when the first informant chhotelal, during his examination in chief recorded during trial, reiterated the name of aforesaid accused along with other two accused named in the FIR, in exercise of power under the provision of Section 319 Cr.P.C. It also comes out from the judgment that during the sessions trial, accused Raj Pal died, therefore, the trial as against the deceased-Raj Pal was abated vide order dated 19.09.2000. Accordingly, the trial proceeded with three accused, namely, Babu Ram, Ram Pal and Lala Ram. All the three accused after having been convicted and sentenced by the impugned judgment and order of sentence dated 03.02.2009 by the Trial Judge, have preferred their appeal separately which are described hereinabove.

4. All the appellants are accused of the same criminal incident and were tried in the same sessions trial, therefore, evidences adduced against them are common. We heard the learned counsels on behalf of their respective accused-appellants. In our opinion, it would be proper to decide all the three appeals through a consolidated judgment so as to avoid anomaly and contrary finding on the same evidence.

5. The accused-appellants in the three appeals shall be addressed hereinafter as A1 (Babu Ram) in Criminal Appeal No.371 of 2009, A2 (Rampal) in Criminal Appeal No.577 of 2009 and A3 (Lala Ram) in Criminal Appeal No.655 of 2009.

6. The case in brief, as comes out from the written complaint submitted by Chhoteylal, the First Information Report founded thereupon and the evidences, is that on 04.04.1985 at about 7:30 p.m., Chottey Lal S/o Raggha Raidas R/o Village and Police Station 'Behta Gokul', District 'Hardoi' along with Saheb Lal, (injured) approached to the police station with a report written in his hand writing and signature informing thereby that his brother Ganga Ram was killed by the accused person, namely (1) Raj Pal, (2) Rampal both sons of B