EMPEROR Vs. BHAIYALAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) SUBHEDAR , A.J.C. 1. The non-applicant Bhaiyalal alias Chhotelal Kon who is young lad of 20 years of age was convicted, practically on his own admission, by the Tahsildar & Magistrate, Second Class, Nagpur under Section 324, I.P.C. and sentenced to pay a fine of Rs 50 only. The case against the accused was that he had branded his wife Mt Gulabboo with hot iron tongs in three places on account of a petty domestic quarrel.

(2.) THE District Magistrate, Nagpur, has, under S 438, Criminal P C reported the case to this Court with the following recommendation: The brutality of the act of the accused calls, in my opinion, for a sentence of imprisonment of at least six mouths. In awarding the sentence of fine, the Magistrate has been influenced by the consideration that the accused was the husband of the girl, who was branded. But I do not consider this a sufficient reason for taking a lenient view of the case. I may note that the accused and his wife are Koris by caste, and remarriage amongst them is permissible.

(3.) THE principal grounds for the necessity for compounding the offence are given in paras 3 and 4 of the application in these words: The applicant is a young girl of 16 years and if her husband, the non-applicant, were to be sentenced to imprisonment, the whole family would suffer disgrace, and in that eventuality there is every apprehension of the non-applicant marrying another woman and deserting, the applicant. The applicant will not, according to the law governing the parties, be able to marry another person and her whole life will be ruined and blasted. It is therefore in the mutual interest of the apalicant as well as the non-applicant that the differences between them be removed and the compromise effected and the parties have therefore compounded the offence and seek permission of this Hon'ble Court to file this compromise in Court. As the applicant is a minor her father who is her present guardian is acting on her behalf in this compromise.