SHARMA, J. - (1.) THE accused appellants have preferred this appeal against the order and judgment dated 6. 6. 1986 passed by the Additional District and Sessions Judge No. 1, Kota in Sessions Case No. 27/84, whereby he has convicted the accused Babu Lal under Section 324 IPC and sentenced him with 6 months R. I. and under Section 323/34 IPC with 3 months R. I. and each of the accused appellant Loonkaran and Nand Lal have been convicted under Section 323 IPC sentenced with 3-3 months R. I. and under Section 324/34 IPC with 6-6 months R. I. and all the sentences to run concurrently.
(2.) THE brief facts of the case as set up by the accused appellants are that on 25. 3. 1983 at about 10 am P. W. 3 Nand Kishor lodged a FIR (Ex. P. 3) in the police station Kaithoon, in which he stated that on 24. 3. 1983, at about 10 pm, while he and P. W. 4 Radhakishan were going to see "khel Tamasha" in the village Baniyani, the accused appellants inflicted injuries on them with Gandasi and Lathis. The police registered a case against accused appellant Babu Lal for the offence under Section 307, 323 read with Section 34 IPC and against Nand Lal and Loonkaran under Section 307 read with Section 34 and 323 IPC and filed challan before the Magistrate concerned and the Magistrate committed the case and ultimately this case was sent for trial to the Additional District and Sessions Judge No. 1, Kota. The learned court below framed charges against the accused appellant Babu Lal under Section 307 and 323/34 IPC and the accused appellants Nand Lal and Loonkaran were charged under Section 307/34 and 323 IPC. The charges were read over and explained to the accused appellants, who denied the same and claimed for trial. During the trial, the prosecution in its support examined as many as 11 witnesses and got exhibited some documents. Thereafter statements under Section 313 Cr. P. C. were recorded. After hearing both the sides, the learned Additional District and Sessions Judge No. 1, Kota convicted and sentenced the accused appellants for the offences as indicated above.
(3.) AGGRIEVED from the aforesaid order and judgment, the accused appellants have preferred this appeal. In this appeal, learned counsel for the appellants Mr. Vijay Choudhary has requested the court that he is not challenging the conviction part of the judgment of the Court below, but he is only requesting this Court that the accused appellants should be released on probation. He has urged to this Court that the incident took place on 24. 3. 1983, which is 25 years ago from today and these accused appellants have been facing the trial continuously for last 25 years, which tantamounts to punishment. He further urged to this Court that all the accused appellants are above 55 years of age and all are brothers belonging to the same family, they were unmarried at the time of occurrence and now they are married and they have their children of marriageable age. He has further contended that it is their first offence, therefore, lenient view should be taken and they should be released on probation. He has also drawn the attention of this court to the judgment delivered by the Apex Court in the case of Naib Singh vs. State of Punjab, reported in 1986 Cr. L. J. 2061. The relevant portion of the said judgment reads as under:-      " Accordingly, the appeal fails and is dismissed. The judgment of the High Court after convicting the appellant under Section 326 of the Indian Penal Code is upheld. As to the sentence, we are inclined to take a lenient view. We are informed that the appellant is a Teacher in a Government School. The circumstances brought out by the prosecution evidence show hat he acted in the heat of the moment. Looking to the fact that the incident occurred on April 22, 1973, some 13 years back, we do not think it desirable to send the appellant back to jail. We accordingly reduce the sentence of rigorous imprisonment for one year awarded by the High Court to imprisonment till the rising of the Court and pay a fine of Rs. 5,000/- or in default, to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of six months. The amount of fine shall be deposited in the Court of the Judicial Magistrate, First Class, Muktsar within a period of one month from today. The amount, if recovered, shall be paid to the complainant Darshan Singh by way of compensation. Appeal dismissed. " Mr. Choudhary has lastly urged to this Court that a lenient view should be taken in the light of the judgment cited hereinabove. ;