New Delhi: Serious offences, like attempt to
murder, cannot be settled through compromise deals and the
accused must suffer conviction and imprisonment, the Supreme
Court has held, rejecting the plea of two warring groups.
A bench of justices BS Chauhan and TS Thakur while
sustaining the conviction, however, reduced the three years`
punishment of appellants - Rajan and Chetan to the period
already undergone by them.
The accused were awarded three-year imprisonment under
Section 307 IPC (attempt to murder) in a property dispute case
with their uncle Veeraji`s family at Sonasavri in Madhya
Pradesh`s Hoshangabad district on September 30, 1994. The
accused are the sons of Gulab Das, brother of Veeraji.
The convicts had appealed in the Madhya Pradesh High
Court which dismissed their petition, upon which they moved
the apex court.
Senior counsel June Chaudhari had submitted that during
the pendency of the appeal in the apex court, the parties had
entered into an amicable settlement and a compromise deed was
signed between them. Hence, she had said, the case should be
compounded under Section 320 CrPC (by closing the case by
paying fine) or else a lenient view of the sentence should be
taken.
The apex court, however, rejected the plea by citing its
earlier order in similar cases.
"Our answer is in the negative... It cannot be allowed to
be compounded even if there is any settlement between the
complainant on the one hand and the accused on the other,"
Justice Thakur said in the judgement.
PTI
