SITARAM SINGH Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) All the four petitioners have been convicted under Section 430 of the Penal Code, and each of them has been sentenced to pay a fine of Rs. 100/- or, in default, to undergo rigorous imprisonment for three months.

(2.) It appears that some of the petitioners have been fighting about the existence of a karha (water channel) for irrigation of some agricultural lands from a canal. In 1949, the canal authorities took steps for acquisition of the site of that karha. After acquisition of the land, the karha began to be reconstructed, and the reconstruction was completed on 25-7-1955.

(3.) The prosecution case is that the petitioners demolished the karha, or, at least, a major portion of it, on 1-8-1955, in the morning and transplanted paddy at the place. The canal authorities made enquiries, and thereafter the Canal S. D. O. (P. W. 5) submitted a report (exhibit 1) at the Nasriganj Police Station. That report was treated as the first information report. The defence case of the petitioners is that they are innocent, and that they did not demolish the karha.