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Pravat Chandra Mohanty v. The State of Odisha

Criminal Appeal · 2021 INSC 80Decided 11 Feb 2021
Criminal Appeal No. 125 of 2021
Justice Ashok Bhushan · Justice Ajay Rastogi

Background

Two accused, tried in a 1985 case, were convicted by the trial court under Section 304 Part II (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and other IPC offences and sentenced to years of imprisonment. On appeal, the Orissa High Court in 2020 set aside the Section 304 Part II conviction but convicted them instead under Section 324 IPC (voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapon) and other lesser offences, imposing shorter sentences including one year under Section 324. The two men, by then in their mid-70s, appealed to the Supreme Court challenging only the Section 324 conviction/sentence and offered to compensate the deceased's family.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court noted that while an offence under Section 324 IPC is not legally "compoundable" (cannot simply be settled between the parties to end the case), a genuine compromise and voluntary compensation offered by the accused is a relevant factor a court may weigh in deciding the quantum of sentence, relying on its earlier ruling in Ishwar Singh v. State of Madhya Pradesh (2008). Given the appellants' advanced age (over 75) and their having deposited Rs. 3.5 lakh each as compensation for the deceased's family, the Court reduced the one-year sentence under Section 324 IPC to six months, while directing the compensation (in addition to what the High Court had already awarded) be paid to the deceased's surviving sons. The appeals were thus partly allowed only on the point of sentence.

Lesson Learnt

Even when an offence is legally non-compoundable (cannot be privately settled to drop the case entirely), genuine remorse, old age of the accused, and voluntary compensation to victims' families can still persuade a court to reduce the length of a sentence, though it will not erase the conviction itself.

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

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