A court at Malegaon in Maharashtra's Nashik district has convicted a Muslim man in a case of road accident brawl but instead of imprisonment, it has ordered him to plant two trees and offer namaz (prayers) five times a day for 21 days.

Magistrate Tejwant Singh Sandhu in the order passed on February 27 noted that provisions of the Probation of Offenders Act granted powers to a magistrate to release a convict after admonition or appropriate warning to ensure he or she does not repeat the offence.