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Dalbir Singh v. State of NCT of Delhi & Anr.

Criminal Appeal · 2020 INSC 514Decided 28 Aug 2020
Criminal Appeal Nos. 550-554 of 2020
Justice Ashok Bhushan · Justice R. Subhash Reddy

Background

The appellant's son died in 2006 after being allegedly tortured in police custody in Noida; several police personnel were convicted and sentenced by a trial court in 2019, which also ordered them to pay compensation to the father under Section 357(3) of the Code of Criminal Procedure. The convicted police officers appealed their conviction and sentence to the Delhi High Court, which remained pending. Meanwhile the father, now 76 and in poor health after pursuing the case for over 14 years, asked for the already-deposited compensation to be released to him immediately, but the High Court refused while the appeals were pending.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court declined to interfere with the High Court's refusal to release the compensation early, holding that since the conviction and sentence themselves were under challenge in pending appeals, releasing the compensation at this stage could lead to complications if the convictions were later overturned. The Court made clear it was not commenting on the merits of the underlying criminal appeals. Instead of releasing the money, it requested the Delhi High Court to decide the pending criminal appeals expeditiously, preferably within six months.

Lesson Learnt

Compensation awarded to a crime victim under Section 357(3) CrPC is usually not released immediately if the underlying conviction and sentence are still being challenged on appeal: courts prefer to wait for finality to avoid having to claw back money later.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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