Life imprisonment becomes three years — and the appellants must surrender after twenty-five years on bail

A Division Bench of Justices Siddharth and Vinai Kumar Dwivedi convert a conviction under Section 302 read with Section 149 into one under Section 304 Part II, uphold the lesser convictions, and order surrender before the Chief Judicial Magistrate within fifteen days.

An old man in a village in Fatehpur district divided his nine bighas between two sets of grandsons: the half near the tube-well went by sale deed to the sons of one son, and the other half was left to the sons of a second son who had died. Three months later, on an afternoon in 1996, the second set came to the door with lathis. The man they beat was their uncle, and he did not survive. In 2001 the Sessions Court convicted them of murder with the aid of Section 149 and sentenced them to life. They have been on bail since August that year. On 8 October 2026 the Allahabad High Court replaced the life sentence with three years — and told them to surrender within a fortnight.

Nine bighas, and a sale deed

The written report lodged at Police Station Thariaon, District Fatehpur, sets out the cause of the quarrel in the informant's own words. He had nine bighas of land in all. Half of it, the portion near the tube-well, he had transferred three months earlier in the names of his grandsons, the sons of his son Shyam Lal. The other half, away from the tube-well, he left in the name of the sons of his second son, who had died, and they had sown a crop on it.

“Since I have executed sale deed of the land in the name of sons of Shyam Lal,” the report says, “due to this reason, sons of Ram Sewak have regarded enmity.”

On the day of the incident, at about two in the afternoon, a group of men — the two sons of the deceased second son, two others, and two more relatives from a neighbouring village — came armed with lathi and danda, called Shyam Lal to the door on the pretext of talking, and began to beat him. His sons, his wife and his daughters, who were present at the door, tried to save him and were themselves beaten with lathi and danda and injured. Shyam Lal became unconscious and was carried to Fatehpur.

The case was committed as a sessions trial of 1998 arising out of a crime number of 1996, and tried before the Additional Sessions Judge, Court No. 8, Fatehpur, under Sections 147, 302 read with 149, and 323 read with 149 of the Penal Code. By judgment and order dated 25 July 2001 the appellants were convicted under all three.

From Section 302 to Section 304 Part II

Twenty-five years later, the Division Bench modified the findings and the sentences and partly allowed the appeal of the surviving appellants — the phrase itself a record of how long the case has run.

The convictions for the lesser offences were left alone. The sentence under Section 147 of one year's rigorous imprisonment each was upheld, as was the sentence of six months' rigorous imprisonment each under Section 323 read with Section 149.

What changed was the gravest count. The Bench set aside the sentence of life imprisonment under Section 302 read with Section 149 and, in its place, convicted the surviving appellants under Section 304 Part II of the Penal Code — culpable homicide not amounting to murder, in the second limb — with three years' rigorous imprisonment. “In our view the purpose of justice would be achieved by convicting surviving appellants under Section 304 Part II IPC with only three years rigorous imprisonment.” All the sentences are to run concurrently.

One feature of the record explains why the appeal was heard as it was. The judgment speaks throughout of the “surviving appellants”, the relief being moulded for those still alive to receive it. Of the group who came to the door in 1996, some did not live to the end of their own appeal.

Order

The appeal of the surviving appellants was partly allowed in those terms.

The consequence for them is immediate. They have been on bail under an order of the High Court dated 8 August 2001. Their personal bonds were cancelled and their sureties discharged, and they were directed to surrender before the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Fatehpur within fifteen days of the judgment and to serve out the sentences as modified. Should they fail to surrender, the Chief Judicial Magistrate is to issue a non-bailable warrant, arrest them and send them to jail to serve the remaining sentence. A copy of the judgment was directed to be communicated to the Chief Judicial Magistrate by the Registrar (Compliance) forthwith.

Three years is a short sentence for a death, and it is being imposed thirty years after the afternoon it was earned, on men who have lived a quarter of a century on bail in the interval. Both of those facts belong to the same delay.