SAHEBRAO KISAN JADHAV Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS Criminal Appeal raises certain issues of far-reaching significance which I am summarising as follows :

(2.) THE facts of this case present a distressing and at the same time most alarming situation; being also representative of the type of incidents which are becoming increasingly common and are resorted to with impunity under the guise of purported exercise of trade union activities or rights. The four appellants, who were employees of Crompton Greaves Ltd, Nasik, were original accused Nos. 3, 6, 7 and 8 along with four other workers, were put on trial before the learned Sessions Judge, Nasik, in Sessions Case No. 62 of 1983. The eight accused were charged with having committed offences punishable under sections 307 read with 149, section 324 read with 149 and section 452 read with section 149 of the Indian Penal Code, as also individual charges under sections 148, 143 and 147 of the Indian Penal Code. The prosecution case was that on 1-2-1983 , the eight accused, out of whom accused No. 7 was the union leader, were members of an unlawful assembly and that they had stormed into the office of Shri Deodhar, Works Manger of the Crompton Greaves Factory at Nasik at about 3-30 p. m. armed with 3 feet long iron-rods and that they had subjected him to a murderous assault as a result of which Shri Deodhar sustained multiple injuries.

(3.) THE background to this assault appears to be that accused Nos. 3, 6 and 8 had been placed under suspension by the Company on 4-1-1983. It is alleged that on 31-1-1983 a minor altercation had taken place in the Companys canteen between one Shri Khairnar, an operator, and a canteen boy because Khairnar is alleged to have asked for milk which the canteen boy was unable to supply; whereupon he got aggressive and insisted that the milk be supplied to him. In the course of the quarrel, the canteen boy is alleged to have taunted him by stating that if he paid Rs. 500/-, he would supply him with a womens milk. Enraged at this incident, accused No. 7 Karwal, a militant leader of the workers, threatened Shri Deodhar that if immediate action is not taken against the canteen boy, they would bring the factory work to a stand still. Deodhar requested accused No. 7 Karwal for some time on the assurance that he would investigate into the incident and certainly take action against the canteen boy, if the complaint was true, but Karwal and his followers refused to wait and brought the work in the factory to a standstill on the demand that action must be taken within ten minutes. Karwal carried out his threat of bringing the work to a standstill; whereupon Deodhar communicated the suspension of work to the head office at Bombay as a result of which on the next morning senior officers of the Company reached Nasik.