PRAYAG DUSADH Vs. RAMJATAN PANDEY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioners have been convicted under Sections 379 and 426, Penal Code, and sentenced to pay a fine of Rs. 50 each under the former section with one month's rigorous imprisonment each in default and to pay a fine of Rs. 20 each under the latter section with two weeks' rigorous imprisonment each in default.

(2.) The charges framed against the petitioners were in respect of an occurrence which took place on the morning of 11th December 1948, when they, along with others, are alleged to have cut away and removed some paddy crops from the land of Sheo Singh, the landlord. The complaint in the case was filed on the next day by Ramjatan Pandey, an employee of the landlord. The landlord's case was that the petitioners who were the original tenants had abandoned the land and had left off the cultivation several years ago with the result that he (the landlord) had amalgamated this land with his own bakasht land and came into cultivating possession of the same.

(3.) The defence of the petitioners was that there was no such occurrence as alleged by the complainant on 11th December 1948. They, however, claimed to have been in cultivating possession of the land in question and also to have cut away and removed the paddy cops some days earlier than 11th December 1948. This was in answer to the charge under Section 379, Penal Code. The charge under Section 426, Penal Code was in respect of an allegation that the petitioners had removed some earth from the dhanihar (dhanhzr ?) and the rabi fields and had put up an ari as a ridge indicating a diviling line between these fields. The prosecution allegation was that this ari had been put up by the petitioners in order to shew division as against the prosecution case that the land had been amalgamated.