MARISWAMY Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS revision is directed against the judgment of conviction and sentence passed by the learned II Additional Sessions Judge, Mysore, convicting the accused petitioners for offences under Sections 143, 147, 323 read with Section 149, Section 423 read with Section 149 of the IPC and section 4 (iv) of the Protection of Civil Rights Act of 1955 (the Act' for short) and to pay a fine of Rs. 50/- each for the offences under Sections 323, 426 and 143 of the IPC with default clause and to suffer S. I. for a period of one month and a fine of Rs. 100/- for the offence under Section 4 (iv) of the Act, in default to suffer S. I. for a period of 4 days.

(2.) THE conviction and sentence passed by the learned Sessions Judge is assailed on the ground that the learned Sessions Judge has ignored the important portions of cross-examination of witnesses which are favourable to the accused and that the learned Sessions Judge has misread the evidence in holding that the ingredients of the offence under section 4 (iv) of the Act have been proved and that the Court has erred in not noticing the two warring groups in the village and that the evidence suffers from interestedness and in the absence of pre-meditation or meeting of minds, the prosecution has failed to prove the common object and therefore the judgment of conviction passed by the learned Sessions judge suffers from manifest illegality and on account of which it is liable to be set aside. It is also contended that the learned Judge ought to have passed sentences only after hearing the petitioners-accused. Even on this ground the judgment is liable to be set aside.

(3.) BEFORE taking up these contentions urged in the revision, I proceed to record the case of the prosecution in brief: the complainant Makaiah, P. W. 1 belonged to Scheduled Caste. He was a resident of Nennur Hosur Village of Chamarajanagar. There was a Government bore-well in front of the house of Ex-Chairman Mahadevappa's house. On 29-3-1985 at about 7. 30 p. m. P. W. 1-Makaiah went near the bore-well to fetch water. At that time, the 1st accused mariswamy, who is the son of Ex-Chairman Mahadevappa, who belongs to Kuruba Caste abused him by calling him 'holeya' and not to touch the bore-well and asked him to keep his pot below the bore-well and thereafter he pumped the water and thereby he committed untouchability by not allowing him to touch the bore-well. P. W. 1-Makaiah thereafter took a pot of water to his house. He came back to fetch another pot of water. At that time, A-2 to A-5 were present near the bore-well, they stopped him from approaching the bore-well, then all of them assaulted him on his back with their hands and damaged the plastic pot by kicking it. At that time, P. W. 3-Siddaiah came to his help and questioned them as to why they were obstructing P. W. 1 from taking water from the bore-well. In the meantime 50 to 60 persons assembled near the place and started pelting stones to the houses and electric bulbs causing damage to the public property. In the said melee, P. W. 1 sustained an injury and he went to the police station and gave an oral complaint as in Ex. P. 1. The sub-Inspector of Police P. W. 11-Chandrappa recorded his statement and registered a criminal case in Cr. No. 25 of 1985 under Section 4 (iv) of the act and Sections 143, 147, 149, 329, 324 and 427 of the IPC. He directed his police constable to take the FIR to the jurisdictional Magistrate. He visited the place on the very night but did not proceed with the investigation as it was night. On the next day morning he collected panchas and drew up a spot mahazar Ex. P. 2. He seized M. O. 1-the damaged plastic pot under the mahazar. The C. I. who later came to the place made further investigation. After completing the formalities of investigation by recording statements of witnesses, obtaining the medical certificate of the injured persons and caste certificate of P. W, 1 from the concerned Tahsildar, charge-sheet was filed against the accused.