Delhi High Court has first convicted a person and then allowed him to compound the matter and acquitted him from the case.
A bench of Justice Sachdeva has passed the order in the case titled as Babli vs State on 21.08.2019.
Appellant impugns judgment dated 16.05.2018 and order on sentence dated 24.05.2018 whereby appellant has been convicted of an offence under Section 307/34 IPC and sentenced to undergo RI for a period of three years and to pay a fine of Rs.1 lakh and in default of payment of fine to undergo SI for a period of six months.
After discussing the legality, the High Court observed "Accordingly, the impugned judgment clearly suffers from an infirmity and the conviction of the appellant under Section 307 IPC is liable to be modified to a conviction under Section 323/34 IPC".
Then the HIgh Court directed "In view of the above, the impugned judgment dated 16.05.2018 is modified. The conviction of the appellant is converted from conviction for an offence under Section 307/34 IPC to Section 323/34 IPC".
It is after this conviction that High Court proceeded with a request for compounding and observed "The complainant is present in Court in person, represented by counsel and identified by the IO. Complainant submits that she has settled with the appellant and has no objection to the compounding of the subject offence. As per the settlement, appellant has deposited an amount of Rs.70,000/- with the Trial Court and the said amount along with interest accrued, if any thereon has to be paid to the victim towards her medical expenditure".
Then the High Court passed the order of acquittal as "Under Section 320 Cr.P.C, Section 323 IPC is a compoundable offence at the instance of the victim. Since the victim is present in Court and has agreed to compounding of the said offence, in my view it would be in the interest of justice to compound the subject offence. The offence is accordingly compounded. Appellant is acquitted of the said offence".
Read the Order here:
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