RESHAM SINGH Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Singing of obscene ballad unfortunately became the genesis of a series of events which ultimately ended up in the murder of Malkiat Singh on the morning of 21-3-1991. A septuagenarian, Tarsem Singh, his son Resham Singh (A1) and his two grandsons-Harbans Lal (A2) and Sukhwinder Singh (A3) were arraigned for the said murder. The trial Court acquitted the old man - Tarsem Singh, but convicted the remaining three of the offence under S.302 read with S. 34 besides two lesser offences and awarded a sentence of imprisonment for life on the main count. The convicted persons filed an appeal before the High Court. The State of Punjab filed an appeal before the High Court. The State of Punjab filed an appeal against the acquittal of Tarsem Singh. A Division Bench of the High Court of Punjab and Haryana heard all the appeals together. While upholding the conviction passed by the trial Court, the Division Bench reversed the order of acquittal of Tarsem Singh and he was also brought within the dragnet of conviction along with others.

(2.) When A1-Resham Singh, A2-Harbans Lal and A3-Sukhwinder Singh, filed appeals in this Court by special leave. We wondered why the old man Tarsem Singh had not approached this Court in spite of his having the right to prefer an appeal under S. 379 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. When we made an enquiry in that regard on 6-11-2000, Mr. Rajiv Dutta, learned counsel for the State of Punjab was good enough to take cue and communicated the same to A4-Tarsem Singh. Pursuant to it, Tarsem Singh filed an appeal in this Court. Thus we have all appeals of the convicted persons.

(3.) We appointed Mr. S. Muralidhar, Adv. as Amicus Curiae. As usual he presented the case with all the details necessary for us to have a full conspectus of the evidence and the fact situation. We express our gratitude to him.