Sarkaria, J. - (1.) Special leave to appeal limited to the question of sentence has been granted to the three appellants who have been convicted for the murders of four persons and sentenced to death.
(2.) Sabal Singh, appellant who gave his age as 65-70 years is the father, and the other two appellants, Ugam Singh and Prem Singh are his sons.
(3.) At first flush, on seeing only the number of persons who lost their lives at the hands of the appellants, our instinctive reaction was to reject summarily at the threshold, all arguments sought to be advanced for commutation of the death sentence awarded to the appellants. But after hearing fully the Counsel on both sides and taking into consideration all the circumstances of the case, we have reached the conclusion that the death sentence of each of the appellant should be commuted to imprisonment for life. Some of these circumstances, among others, may briefly be indicated:- (i) Background of the Case - One Smt. Bhanwari Bai, an issueless widow, was an allottee of two Murabhas of land, bearing survey Nos. 32 and 33, in Chak No. 9. She died in 1972. Thereupon, a dispute arose about the cultivation and possession of the land. Sabal Singh, appellant claimed that he was the nearest heir of Bhanwari Bai deceased, who was residing with him at the time of her death. Sheodhan Singh, Ridmal Singh and Jatan Singh deceased laid a rival claim to that land inter alia on the ground that they were in possession of that land even during the lifetime of the widow, and were getting it cultivated on share-basis through P. Ws. Banta Singh and Hajura Singh. The deceased persons used to reside in a (dhani) farm hut, situated in the disputed land, to supervise its cultivation, as the land is situated at a far off distance from the habitation of the village. (ii) The plea of the appellants at the trail was one of private defence of property and person. The case sought to be made out by the defence was that the appellants were in established possession of the disputed land since January 21, 1975, to the exclusion of the deceased persons; that on March 8, 1975, the deceased persons along with others, came drunk and fully armed to the field to evict the appellants and carry away the crop by force. The deceased attacked Prem Singh and Ugam Singh who in self-defence wielded their lathis and caused injuries to the deceased. Sabal Singh"s plea was that he was not present at the time and place of occurrence and that he learnt it from his sons later, and then unsuccessfully attempted to lodge a counter F.I.R. on the basis of this derivative information, with the police.;