R.P. Nagrath JUDGMENT
Surya Kant, J.
1. The two petitioners who are real brothers and sons of late Rajmal have invoked the jurisdiction of this Court under Section 482 Cr.P.C. for directing the Appellate Court at Hisar to 'compound' the offences in the pending criminal appeal arising out of judgement dated 16.03.2009 passed in Criminal Case No. 425-I of 2000 by Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate, Hisar, on the basis of compromise dated 08.08.2011 arrived at between them and their step-mother - respondent No. 2 (Smt. Reshma Devi) w/o late Rajmal. A brief reference to the facts is necessitated. Respondent No. 2 was owner-in-possession of the agriculture land to the extent of 1/5th share in the total land measuring 180K-18M comprised in Khewat/Khasra No. 106/168 to 170, situated within the revenue estate of Village Jhanjanwala, Tehsil Narwana, District Jind. She acquired ownership of the land as per the consent decree dated 02.02.1998 passed by Civil Court, Narwana in a Civil Suit titled as "Reshma v. Rajmal" (i.e. husband of Reshma). Rajmal had married twice and both the petitioners were born out of his first marriage whereas respondent No. 2 was his second wife.
2. Respondent No. 2 filed a criminal complaint under Section 156(3) of Cr.P.C. before the Judicial Magistrate with the following allegations:-
a) That the petitioners wanted to grab her land comprising 1/5th share in the total land measuring 180K-18M whereas she wanted partition of the joint holding and her exclusive possession of the land under her ownership, for which she went to the Tehsil Office at Narwana on 27.05.1997;
b) One Ganga Singh met her in the Tehsil office and asked her as to why was she there. She told Ganga Singh regarding her dispute with the petitioners and her desire to get her land partitioned. Ganga Singh offered his services for this purpose and took her to his house where she stayed for the night. Next day i.e. on 28.05.1997, Ganga Singh took her to Hisar and obtained her thumb impressions on some blank papers and got her photographed with an assurance that a power of attorney was required to be executed in his favour for getting the land partitioned. One Raghbir Singh Lamberdar of village Jhanjanwala also accompanied Ganga Singh and both of them got a power of attorney executed;
c) Respondent No. 2 then went to her brother Satbir Singh's house on 29.05.1997 and narrated the whole story regarding the execution of GPA. Her brother allegedly told her that Ganga Singh in fact was in collusion with the sons of the first wife of her husband, namely, the petitioners and the power of attorney was got executed with their connivance;
d) Respondent No. 2 thereafter approached Rattan Kumar Aggarwal, Scribe of the GPA and got cancelled the GPA vide deed dated 29.05.1997 and informed Ganga Singh about the same on 30.05.1997;
e) Despite cancellation of the GPA and having received information to this effect, Ganga Singh executed and registered a sale deed in favour of the petitioners on 03.06.1997 whereby her entire share in the joint land was 'sold' to the petitioners; and
f) This act of Ganga Singh, Raghbir Singh and the petitioners, according to respondent No. 2, amounted to an offence under various provisions of the IPC.
3. The Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate, Hisar vide his judgement and order dated 16.03.2009 (Annexure P1) held the petitioners as well as Ganga Singh, Chandi Ram and Raghbir guilty of the offences under Section 420, 467, 468 read with Section 120B IPC and sentenced them accordingly, with maximum RI of two years though all the sentences were directed to run concurrently.
4. The petitioners have pr........