LAWS(PAT)-1977-10-14

SUBEDAR UPADBYA Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

Decided On October 12, 1977
SUBEDAR UPADBYA Appellant
V/S
STATE OF BIHAR Respondents

JUDGEMENT

(1.) All the 8 petitioners have been convicted under section 379 of the Indian Penal Code and sentenced therefor, (as redy by the Appellate Court) to one. year's rigorous imprisonment each. All petitioners have further been convicted under section 430 and 147 of the Penal Code. As reduced by the Appellate Court the sentence of rigorous imprisonment, imposed on each of the petitioners under section 430 of the Penal Code is one year and under section 147 three months.

(2.) The prosecution case, briefly stated, is that in the night between the 21st and 22nd of October, 1967, the informant Uma Rai, Sattadar of Jethwar 'Fall' along with others was sleeping and he woke up on hearing some sound ; he found the petitioners armed with deadly weapons and removing ths planks. The petitioners threatened the informant and his men and removed the planks with the result that water was diverted to their field for agricultural purposes. The defence of the petitioners was that they had been falsely implicated in the case. Both the courts- below have held that the prosecution has proved its case beyond doubt and have accordingly convicted and sentenced the petitioners, as aforesaid.

(3.) Learned counsel for the petitioners has urged that he would press this application only on the question of sentence. It is urged by Sri S. C. Mishra, that the occurrence took place in the year 1967 and the main intention of the petitioners was to cultivate their own fields, and in 1967 there was severe drought, a lenient view should be taken. That 1967 was a period of severe, even unprecedented, drought is a fact of which judicial notice may be taken. And there is no doubt, on the prosecution case itself, that the intention of the petitioners in removing the planks was taking water from the canal to irrigate their fields. In the extraordinary situation prevailing in the year 1967, in my view, a lenient view on the question of sentence would be justified.