LAWS(SC)-1983-11-2

JAI SINGH Vs. SARWAN SINGH

Decided On November 14, 1983
JAI SINGH Appellant
V/S
SARWAN SINGH Respondents

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Thirteen persons were sentenced to life imprisonment by the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Ambala, under Section 302 read with Section 149 of the Penal Code. For other offences connected with the main offence of murder, they were sentenced to lesser concurrent terms of imprisonment. The charge against the accused is that they committed the murder of one Dhian Singh and caused injuries to six others on June 6, 1980.

(2.) The accused are Harijans while the deceased Dhian Singh belonged to the Rajput faction of the village of Sultanpur. There were disputes between the two groups over a piece of land. The Harijans filed a suit to establish their title to that land but they lost that suit, having taken it up to the High Court in Second Appeal. Proceedings under S. 145 of the Code of Criminal Procedure were instituted against the two factions, which also the Rajputs won.

(3.) The judgment which the High Court of Punjab and Haryana declared in this case shows how important it is for Judges to observe the norms laid down by law for dispensing justice. 'Justice under the tree' or the Panchayat justice have advantages of their own, but they cannot be confused with justice according to the Chancellor's foot. If anything, the strange procedure adopted by the High Court in this case has only succeeded in giving a bad name to a useful innovation which, it tried cautiously and with circumspection, will take away at least a frivolous chunk of litigation which clogs the wheels of justice in Courts of law.