LACHMAN SINGH AND OTHERS versus THE STATE

Citation: [1952] 1 S.C.R. 839 · Decided: 21-03-1952 · Supreme Court of India · Bench: SIR SYED FAZL ALI · Disposal: Dismissed

Judgment (excerpt)

• 
S.C.R. 
SUPREME COURT REPORTS 
839 
invoked by the · plaintiff, to the property held by 
a wife in her own right, the foundation on which 
custom grows would be wanting. When the matter 
is further probed, it appears that the plaintiff relies not 
only on custom but partly on custom and partly on 
the rule of Hindu la:w, namely, that the law which 
governs 
the 
husband 
will 
govern 
the 
wife , also. 
Whether the latter rule can be extended to a case like 
the present ~ a question of some difficulty, on which, 
as at present advised, we would reserve our opinion. 
In the circumstances, we prefer to leave the issue of 
custom undecided, and base our decision on the sole 
ground, which by itself is sufficient to conclude the 
appeal, that the plaintiff's marriage with Ram Piari 
has not been clearly established. 
The appeal therefore fails and it is dismissed, but 
in the circumstances of the e;ase and particularly since 
the appellant has appealed in f orma pauperis, we 
direct that the parties will bear their own costs in all 
the courts. 
Appeal dismissed. 
Agent for the appellant: S. D. Sekhri. 
Agent for the respondent: Naunit Lal. 
LACHMAN SINGH AND OTHERS 
v. 
THE STATE 
[SAIYID FAzL Au and VIVIAN BosE JJ.] 
Evidence Act (1 of 1872), sec. 27-Statements of several accused 
leading to 
discoveries-Admissibility-Necessity of 
proof 
as to 
which statement was made first-Scope of sec. 27. 
Three persons K, M and S, who were accused of murder · 
made statements to the police which disclosed that the dead 
bodies after being dismembered were thrown into a stream and 
the police party thereafter went with the three accused to the 
stream where each of them pointed out a place where different 
1952 
Thakur Gokal 
Chand 
v. 
Parvin Kumari. 
Fazl Ali f. 
1952 
March 21. 
1952 
Lachma11 Singh 
and Others 
v. 
The State. 
840 
SUPREME COURT REPORTS 
[1952] 
parts of the dead bodies were discovered. It was contended on 
behalf of the accused that it was only the information which was 
first given that was admissible u·nder sec. 
27 
of the Evidence 
Act, 
that once 
a fact has been discovered in consequence of 
information received from a person accused of an 
offence~ it 
cannot be said to be 
re~discovered in consequence of information 
received from another accused person, and that in the absence 
of evidence to show which of the 
accused first gave the infer· 
mation the discoveries alleged cannot be proved against any of 
the accused persons: Held, that, even assuming that this argu· 
ment was correct, as it appeared from the 
evidence that S led 
the police to a particular spot on the stream and it was at his 
instance that some blood stained earth was recovered from 
a 
place outside the village and he had also pointed out the trunk 
of one of the dead bodies, and the High Court was satisfied that 
there was an "initial pointing out" by S, the case was covered 
by 
the rule and the evidence as to the discoveries was admissible. 
\Vith regard to the rule applicable to cases 
where there is 
clear and unimpeachable evidence as to independent and authen· 
tic statements of the nature referred to in sec. 27 of the Evidence 
Act having been made by several accused persons either 
simul-
taneously or otherwise, some of the decided cases have 
gone 
further than is warranted by the language of sec. 27 of the 
Evidence Act and may have to be reviewed on a future occasion. 
CRIMINAL 
APPELLATE 
JURISDICTION : Criminal 
Appeal No. 2i of 1950. Appeal from the judgment 
and order dated 29th J uni:, 1950, of the High Court of 
Judicature at Simla (Weston C.J. and Khosla J.) in 
Criminal Appeal No. 432 of 1949 arising out of a judg-
ment dated 5th August, 1949, of the Court of the Addi- · 
tional Sessions Judge, Amritsar, in Sessions Trial No. 
7 <if 1949 and Case No. 8 of 1949. 
fai Gopal Sethi (R. L. Kohli, with him) for the 
appellants. 
Gopal Singh for the State. 
1952, March 21. The Judgment of the Court 
delivered by· 
was 
: -. :;oo 
FAzL Au J.-The three appellants were tried by the 
Additional Sessions 
Judge 
at Amritsar and found 
guilty of having murdered two persons named Darshan 
Singh and Achhar Singh and sentenced to transporta-
tion for life. The High Court of Punjab upheld their 
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S.C.R. 
SUPREME COURT REPORTS 
841 
conviction and sentence and 
granted them a certificate 
under article 134( 1) ( c) of the Constitution that the 
case 1s a fit one for appeal to this Court. Hence this 
a

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