STATE OF H P Vs. AMAR SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The seven respondents upon having been tried for the offences under Sections 147, 148, 323, 325 and 447 of the Indian Penal Code by the learned Judicial Magistrate 1st Class (II), Hamirpur, stand acquitted of such offences vide judgment dated 31/10/1997. By virtue of the present appeal, the State has assailed the acquittal of the respondents as recorded by the learned Magistrate.

(2.) The facts of the present case leading to the prosecution of the respondents, need not be set out in detail since the present appeal can be disposed of on a legal aspect. Suffice to say that according to the case of the prosecution, all the respondents on 27/7/1991 are alleged to have constituted an unlawful assembly with the common intention to commit criminal trespass over the land belonging to the complainant Bhangi Ram (PW 1) and further that in furtherance of such common intention they committed criminal trespass over such land and also voluntarily caused simple as well as grievous injuries to PW 1 Bhangi Ram and his son Gian Chand (PW 2).

(3.) The case came to be registered on the basis of the statement of PW 1 recorded under Section 154, Code of Criminal Procedure vide FIR No. 40 of 1991 at Police Station, Badsar. A perusal of the record shows that after the necessary investigation, the Incharge Police Station, Badsar put up a final report under Section 173(1) of the Code of Criminal Procedure recommending the cancellation of the case on the ground that the land on which the criminal trespass is alleged to have been committed by the respondents was owned and possessed by the respondent Kashmir Singh. Admittedly, all the respondents are members of the same family. It was also reported by the Incharge of Police Station in his final report that the respondents were found to have exercised their right of private defence of property in order to protect their land.