SUTAPA MUKHARJEE Vs. STATE OF CHHATTISGARH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Petitioner's husband namely Sudeep Kumar Mukharjee was convicted for offence punishable under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 by judgment dated 05/01/2012 and he was sentenced to imprisonment for one year along with a compensation of Rs. 3,00,000/- payable to respondent No. 2 and it was further directed that in the event of non-payment of said compensation amount, he would have to serve jail sentence for three months. The said judgment of conviction was appealed by petitioner's husband but ultimately, the appeal stood dismissed by the appellate authority on 06/10/2012. In the meanwhile, recovery proceeding under Section 421 of CrPC was initiated by respondent No. 2 for realizing the amount of compensation, but unfortunately petitioner's husband died on 04/07/2015 and now, the proceeding for recovery of compensation/fine amount is pending against the petitioner which has been called in question by her in the instant writ petition.

(2.) Mr. Anish Tiwari, learned counsel for the petitioner, would submit that since petitioner's husband has already served jail sentence of one year as well as default sentence of another three months for non-payment of compensation, no proceeding under Section 421 of CrPC for recovery of compensation would lie and the compensation amount cannot be recovered. Even otherwise, the compensation could also not be recovered as per Section 70 of IPC, as such, the instant writ petition be allowed and the recovery proceeding pending against the petitioner be quashed.

(3.) Mr. Faiz Kazi, learned counsel for respondent No. 2, would submit that in view of the decision rendered by the Supreme Court in the matter of Kumaran v. State of Kerala & Anr. , 2017 7 SCC 471 even if substantive jail sentence as well as default sentence both have been served, yet the compensation amount has to be recovered from the accused/his legal heirs, as such, the instant writ petition deserves to be dismissed. However, any objection with regard to Section 70 of IPC can be raised by the petitioner before the authority where the application under Section 421 of CrPC is pending.