CHAWLA AND ANOTHER versus STATE OF HARYANA

Citation: [1974] 3 S.C.R. 340 · Decided: 12-02-1974 · Supreme Court of India · Bench: V.R. KRISHNA IYER · Disposal: Appeal(s) allowed

Cited by 1 judgment(s) · see the full citation network in Lexace

Judgment (excerpt)

340 
CHAWLA AND ANOTHER 
v. 
STATE OF HARYANA 
February 12, 1974 
[V. R. KRISHNA IYER AND R. S. SARKARIA, JJ.l 
Criminal law-Practice and Procedure-Seritence of /;fe imprisonment for 
murder. when may be 1ranted. 
· 
Six. accUsed were charged with the murder of three persons. Two of the 
ac.:used-tbe appellants-were convicted of murder of two of -the deceased, 
n:spectively and were sentenced to death by the High Court in appeal. 
The 
other four accused were sentenced to life imprisonment. 
In appeal to this Court, regarding the sentence of death passed on the two 
appellants, 
HELD : The death sentence should be commuted to imprisonment for life. for 
the following reasons :-
(a) It was probable that the tragedy was provoked or precipitated by the 
blame-worthy and intransigent conduct of the deceased in regard to the retaining 
or taking possession of the land that had been finally allotted to the accused by 
the Consolidation autbprities. and over which land, there were disputes between 
the accused and the deceased. 
fb) The first appellant was rcs,:ionsible for causing only one out of the 
3 
fatal injuries received by the 
deceased for_ whose murder be was 
convicted. 
Probably, that was the only blOw given by him to tho deceased, while the 
remaining 6 punctured wounds were all caused by the other accused who were 
awarded the lesser sentence. 
A 
B 
c 
D 
( c) The appellants are immature youths who appear to have acted· at the 
E 
instigation of their elder. 
(d) The appellants must have suffered prolonged mental torture on account 
of their beinS: constantlI haunted by the spectre of death for one year and 10 
, months ever since they were sentenced to death by the trail court. 
Moreover the Court has now a discretion to award either of the two penalties 
prescribed under s. 302, Penal Code, and death sentence is now exacted only 
where the murder was perpetrated with marked brutality. [346 E-347 CJ 
Y;v;an Rodrick v. Tiie State of West Be11gal, A.I.R. 1971 S.C. 1584; Gurd;p 
Singh v, State of PunitJb, A.l.R. 
1971 S.C. 2240, State of Maharashlra 
v. 
Mang/ye Dhavu Kongll, A.I.R. 1972 S.C. 1797, State of B/har v. Pa.rhupatl Singh 
and another, A.I.R. 1973 S.C. Ga/anand and ors. v. State of U.P. A.I.R. 1954 
S.C. 695, and Ediga A.namma v. State of A.ndhra Pradesh, Cr. A. 67/73 decided 
on 11·2·74, followed. 
F 
Brij Bhukhan and ors. v. State of U.P. A.I.R.~ 1957 S.C. 474, Mil:Jlll and anr. 
<tc. v. State of U.P. A.I.R. 1959, S.C. 572 and Jagmohan Singh v. State of U.P. 
G 
Cr. L.J. 370 (S.C.), referred to. 
CRIMINAL APPELLATE JURISDICTION : Criniinal Appeal No. 109 of 
1973. 
Appeal by Special leave from the judgment and order dated the 13th 
November, 1972 of the Punjab and Haryana High Court at Chandigarh 
in Criminal Appeal No. 493 of n and Murder Reference No. 21 of 
H 
1972. 
N. S. Das Bahl, for the appellants. 
A 
B 
c 
0 
E 
F 
/ 
G 
H 
CHAWLA v. HARYANA (Sarkaria, I.) 
341 
V. C. Mahajan and R. N. Sachthey, for the respondent. 
The Judgment of the Court was delivered by 
· 
SARKARIA J. 
The facts giving rise to this appeal by special leave 
are as under : 
Jagga had thret sons; Bishna, Ram Lal and Har Lal. 
Ram Dia, Dal Singh and Ran Singh deceased were the sons 
of Bishna. Ram Lai and his sons, Chawla and Dhanna Har 
Lal, his son, Puran, and Har Lal's grandson, Mukhtiara are 
the accused in this case. 
' 
During consolidation operations in their village, Deora, dispute 
arose between Ram Lal and Har Lal on one side and Bishna on the 
other, over the allotment of a plot, measuring 4' acres. This plot was 
allotted by the Consolidation Officer to Bishna· but in revision the 
Additional Director, 
Consolidation on May 4: 1968, set asid~ the 
Order ct the Consolidation Officer and allotted it to Ram Lal and 
Har Lal, accused. Bishna died and the deceased succeeded him. Aggriev-
ed, the deceased persons moved the High Court under Art. 226 of 
the Constitution for bringiqg up and quashing the order of the Direc-
tor. 
The High Court dismissed this petition on July 14, 1971 and 
upheld the order of the Director. On October 4, 1971, the Assistant 
Collector made an order that, in implementation of the order of the 
Director of Consolidation, the land be demarcated at the spot and 
possession delivered to the allottees. It was further directed that the 
land be mutated in favour of the allottees. 
On October 5, 1971, 
the Kanungo, in compliance :with the Assistant Collector's ·order, 
demarcated the land at 

Excerpt shown. Read the full judgment & AI analysis in Lexace.