Deciding Authority: Supreme Court of India
Name of the Judges: Justice Harjit Singh Bedi, Justice C.K. Prasad
Date of Judgement: March 10, 2010
Facts of the Case: The incident was a result of a dispute during the panchayat elections held in the year 1992 in which the complainants had been successful and the accused appellants’ party was defeated. This rivalry led to the incident on 7th November, 1993. During the course of the incident, three persons Haribhau (P.W.1), Namdev (P.W.3) and Vittal (P.W.9) were injured. While the matter had been pending in Supreme Court, the parties appeared to have compromised the dispute and a joint affidavit setting out the terms of the compromise had been filed. The appellants were four in number and were convicted under Section 326 r/w Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code and Section 324 r/w Section 34 of the IPC and were sentenced to suffer rigorous imprisonment for one year and fine of Rs. 500/- each in default to suffer rigorous imprisonment for one month and simple imprisonment for six months and fine of Rs. 200/- each in default to suffer simple imprisonment for one month respectively.
Issue: In the light of the judgments of the Court in Surendra Nath Mohanty & Anr. v. State of Orissa (1999) 5 SCC 238 and Bankat and Another v. State of Maharashtra (2005) 1 SCC 343, the sentence awarded to the appellants should be reduced to already undergone although the fine may be suitably enhanced in the background of the fact that admittedly the offence under Section 326 of the IPC was non-compoundable under Section 320 of the CrPC.
Judgement: The above stated judgments did suggest a decision in terms of the issue of the instant case. The complainant’s counsel had also stated that as the parties had already compromised, he would have no objection if the appeal was disposed of in the suggested terms. So, the Court accordingly directed that the sentence of the appellants should be reduced to that already undergone between one to three months. The appellants were also directed to pay a sum of Rs. 3,000/- each as fine and that the aforesaid amount of Rs. 12,000/- should be paid to P.Ws. 1, 3 and 9 in equal shares.
Decision: The fine had to be deposited within a period of three months from the date of Judgement. The failure to deposit the fine within the stipulated period will be deemed to be a dismissed appeal of the case.
By: Roopali Mohan, 2nd Year, Vivekananda Institute of Professional Studies, New Delhi
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