PALANI Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS petition coming on for orders upon perusing the petition and the Memorandum of Grounds in Criminal Appeal No. 1014 of 2007 on the file of the High Court and upon hearing the arguments of S. Shanmuga Velayudham Senior Counsel for A. Sivaji Advocate for the petitioner and of I. Paul Noble Devakumar Government Advocate (Crl. side) on behaalf of the respondent the Court made the following order:- The petitioners are A-1, A-2, A-4, A-5, a-6 and A-8 respectively in S.C. No. 80 of 2005 on the file of the learned District and Sessions Judge, Tiruvannamalai District. They were found guilty, convicted and sentenced for the offences as detailed below:-

(2.) THE petitioners have filed the present petition seeking to suspend the fine amount imposed on them. THE petitioners have also filed M.P. No. 2 of 2007 seeking to suspend the sentence imposed on them. By order dated 3.12.2007 this Court, while permitting the withdrawal of the petition so far as A-1 and A-2 are concerned, suspended the sentences and granted bail to A-4, A-5, A-6 and A-8 on the ground that they used sticks and caused injuries only to the witnesses.

(3.) WE have heard the learned Additional Public Prosecutor as well. Section 389 of the Code of Criminal Procedure contemplates that pending any appeal by a convicted persons, the Appellate Court may, for reasons to be recorded by it in writing order that the execution of the sentence or order appealed against be suspended and, also, if he is in confinement, that he be released on bail, or on his own bond. A plain reading of the said Section would show that the Appellate Court has the power to suspend the execution of the sentence of order appealed against. The term 'sentence? or ?order? employed in Section 389 Code of Criminal Procedure, must be construed to be a sentence or order which are capable of being executed. Only such sentence or order which are capable of being executed can be suspended by the Appellate Court. The sentence of imprisonment as well as the direction for payment of fine are capable of being executable. In these circumstances, the discretionary power of the Appellate Court to suspend the execution of sentence must also necessarily include the execution of fine amount as well. However there could be two requirements before such an order of suspending the fine amount is ordered namely, as to the hardship of the accused-petitioners if the stay of execution of fine is not granted and while granting suspension, sufficient safeguards must be made to ensure the recovery of the fine amount in case the appeal is finally dismissed.