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JUDGMENT With Crl. Appeal No.480 of 1999 G.P. MATHUR,J.

In view of conflict of opinion in two decisions of this Court rendered in Lakhjit Singh & Anr. v. State of Punjab 1994 Supp. (1) SCC 173 and Sangarabonia Sreenu v. State of A.P. 1997 (5) SCC 348 these appeals have been directed to be placed for hearing before a three-Judge Bench.

2. The accused Dr. Dalbir Singh was charged under Section 302 IPC for having committed the murder of his wife Vimla and two daughters Km. Neha aged 7 years and Km. Shruti aged 1= year on 28.3.1991. He was further charged under Section 304-B IPC for causing dowry death of his wife Vimla and also under Section 498-A IPC for subjecting her to cruelty. The IXth Addl. Sessions Judge, Agra, by his judgment and order dated 20.3.1997 convicted him under Section 302 IPC and sentenced him to death. He was also convicted under Section 498-A I.P.C. and was sentenced to 3 years R.I. but was acquitted of the charge under Section 304-B IPC. In appeal the High Court came to the conclusion that the charge under Section 302 IPC was not established and accordingly acquitted him for the said offence. The High Court also came to the conclusion that the accused was guilty under Section 306 IPC for having abetted commission of suicide by Vimla by setting herself on fire wherein her two daughters also died. But in view of the fact that no charge under Section 306 IPC was framed against the accused, the High Court, relying upon Sangarabonia Sreenu v. State of A.P. 1997 (5) SCC 348, held that the accused could not be convicted for the said offence. The High Court noticed that a contrary view had been taken in an earlier decision in Lakhjit Singh v. State of Punjab 1994 Supp (1) SCC 173 but chose to rely upon the later decision as the settled view of the said court was that if there was conflict of opinion in two decisions of this Court rendered by benches of equal strength, it is the later decision which has to prevail. The conviction of the accused under Section 498-A IPC and sentence imposed thereunder was, however, maintained.. The accused Dr. Dalbir Singh and also the State of U.P. have preferred appeals against the decision of the High Court.

3. Dalbir Singh, a MBBS Doctor, was at the relevant time posted in a government hospital in Almora in the hills of U.P. (now in the State of Uttaranchal). His wife and two daughters were living in a flat bearing No. 9/8 Sanjay Palace, ADA Colony in the city of Agra. The accused used to come to Agra almost every fortnightly. PW 13 Jagdish Chandra Agrawal, who carries on business in Delhi, had come to Agra and was staying in flat No. 1/3 with Shri Narendra Dhar in the same colony. At about 10.30 a.m. on 28.3.1991, after hearing a commotion, he came out and saw smoke coming out from a flat situate on the second floor. He went there and found that the outer door of flat was closed but it got opened after some pressure had been exerted. He along with others entered the flat and found a badly burnt girl lying on the sofa. In the inner room there was smoke and a badly burnt body of a lady and her daughter were found on the double bed. He alongwith another person then went to PS Hari Parwat and gave information about the incident to the Head Constable who asked him to give the same in writing which he did. PW1 DK Jain who lived in the adjoining flat also went inside the flat of the accused alongwith other persons and had seen the body of the elder daughter on the sofa and the bodies of Vimla and younger daughter on the double bed in the inner room. PW 8 Raja Ram Pal Inspector of PS Hari Parwat immediately reached the scene of occurrence and by that time the fire Brigade had already arrived and efforts were being made to extinguish the fire. He went inside the flat, saw the bodies of the three victims and also a cooking gas cylinder at a distance of about one and half feet from the double bed. In the same room a diary was found on the dressing table and on three pages thereof bearing the dates 29th to 31st March a letter had been written by the deceased Vimla by red pen. This letter has an important bearing in the case and we will refer to it later on. The ceiling fan, the walls and the roof of the room had become black on account of smoke. The investigation of the case was done by PW 14 Pramod Kumar Mishra, Dy. S.P. who took in his possession the gas cylinder with regulator, diary, a kerosene lamp, burnt portion of some clothes and quilt etc. After recording statement of witnesses he submitted charge-sheet against the accused on 21.6.1991. The learned Sessions Judge framed charges under 302,304-B and 498-A IPC against the accused who pleaded not guilty and claimed to be tried. In the course of trial the prosecution examined 16 witnesses and filed some documentary evidence. The accused also examined 6 witnesses in his defence.

4. PW 11 RD Chetwal who is the father of deceased Vimla, has deposed that the marriage had been arranged through the mediation of a distant relation Piarey Lal who had informed that the accused no doubt came from a poor family but he was well qualified. He had given 9-10 tolas of gold ornaments, black and white T.V., refrigerator, double bed, steel almirah and other articles of domestic use as presents in marriage. Subsequently he had given a scooter to the accused when he was posted at Pinhat. Vimla had told him that the accused used to often complain that the articles given in the marriage were not of his standard. He used to frequently taunt her in this regard. Thereafter he had given Rs. 25,000/- in cash to the accused for the purpose of purchasing a flat in Agra and for this purpose he had withdrawn money from his provident fund. He further deposed that he had taken a certificate regarding withdrawal of money (which he produced in court) in order to show to the accused that he would not be in a position to pay any more amount and he should not cause any further harassment to his daughter relating to demand of money. His wife, who was an income tax payee, had given cash money to Vimla on different occasions which she had deposited in a bank. PW11 further deposed that the mother of the accused Dr. Dalbir Singh and a person known as Laktakia used to frequently assault Vimla and the assaults had increased after the birth of the second daughter. PW 12 Maya Devi who is the mother of Vimla has also deposed that according to their status ornaments, clothes and other items had been given at the time of marriage. Vimla had come to her parental home 2-3 months after the marriage and at that time she had become very lean and thin and was not keeping well. On inquiries she had informed that the accused Dalbir used to frequently taunt her that the articles given at the time of the marriage were not of his standard. She has corroborated the version of PW 11 that an amount of Rs.25,000/- was sent to the accused through PW 9 Inder Pal Singh for the purpose of buying the flat. She used to give Rs.2,000 to Rs.5,000 in cash every time Vimla came to her parental home. Vimla had come to her parental home about two and a half months prior to the incident and had told her that the accused Dalbir would kill her. The wife of PW 9 Inder Pal Singh is the sister of PW 12 Smt. Maya Devi and he is thus related to PW 11. He has deposed that the accused was not happy or satisfied with the dowry given at the time of marriage and used to frequently harass Vimla in that regard. The father of Vimla had given money to the accused for the purpose of buying the flat but even thereafter he used to make demand of various items like scooter etc. The accused had obtained a Power of Attorney of the flat from Vimla in his favour and used to frequently assault her. Vimla had also complained to him about one month before the occurrence that she apprehended threat to her life from Dalbir.

5. The handwriting and the signature of Vimla on the letter recovered from the diary has been proved by PW 10 Rajender who is the husband of her younger sister. He has deposed that Vimla used to write letters to his wife Suman and thus he was familiar with her handwriting. The letter has been quoted in extenso in the judgment of the High Court. This letter was written in Hindi by Vimla to her husband whom she has addressed as 'Dear Dalbir' and expresses the feelings of a wife who is being constantly harassed by a greedy husband on account of alleged inadequacy of dowry and it is a pathetic reading. It is difficult to convey the same feelings by translating it into English. In nutshell what she has written is that he (Dalbir) had constantly harassed her by taunting her almost everyday on the issue of dowry. He had been complaining that the double bed was of very cheap quality; that the steel almirah was of very light quality; that her father had given a black and white T.V. and not a colour T.V; that the sofaset was of very inferior type and that the suits given to him were of very cheap quality. He had also been complaining that no scooter had been given at the time of marriage and that the ornaments were very cheap and light. She had been bearing all this for several years in the hope and expectation that he would improve himself but he had taken undue advantage of her patience. She had been tolerating the frequent assaults made by him but she cannot bear the beating caused to Neha (daughter) who was still very young and it was the time for her to play. Therefore she was taking away Neha and Shruti as well along with her. In the second paragraph she has written that now he can marry again wherein he can amass lot of dowry and have several sons which would make his mother happy. She did not want to say anything against Pappu (Laktakia) but God will certainly see him for the assaults made by him upon her. Thereafter she has said that he did not allow her to wear the ornaments given by her father as he thought that their value will be reduced if she wore them. If he had even small amount of human values left in him, the said ornaments be given to Santo Devi widowed daughter of her Shanti Bua and if she was not prepared to accept the same it may be donated to any Anathashram. In the last paragraph she has written that she would pray to God that he may always remain happy and he should not behave with anybody else in the same manner in which he had behaved with her.