JAINANDAN SAO Vs. THE STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellant, though originally charged under Sec. 307 of the Indian Penal Code, has been convicted under Sec. 326 of that Code and has been sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for five years. The case, as disclosed in the first information report, is that, on the 8th July, 1966, the informant was ploughing his field in Bhadai Tand of village Gangpur, police station Gomia, district Hazaribagh. At about 9 a.m. the appellant, along with his father, Bandhan Sao, his nephew, Indarwa Teli, and his aunt, Mossammat Pandri, came there, and, on seeing the informant ploughing the land Mossammat Pandri challenged him and called upon the persons accompanying her to thrash the informant as best as they could. The further case is that, at the words of the said Mossammat Pandri, the father and the nephew of the appellant started assaulting the informant with lathis, and the appellant himself assaulted him with a pharsa, which, though aimed at his neck, fell on his left temporal region. The informant, however, admitted that this assault was on account of enmity relating to possession of land.

(2.) Although, as per the first information report the persons who took part in assaulting the informant, besides the appellant, were his father and the nephew also, yet no case was found against them and they were not put up for trial either.

(3.) The defence case is that the appellant's person was threatened with assault by the informant, and, therefore, he, in exercise of the right of private defence of person, had used the pharsa. The appellant further pleaded that he had the right to defend his property also which the informant was illegally ploughing. Thus, in effect, the defence of the appellant was a defence of the right of private defence of person and property.