Compounding Of Offences U/S 67A Of Akbari Act Is Equivalent To S. 320(8) CrPC, Has The Effect Of Acquittal: Kerala High Court

The petitioners in this case were alleged to possess large quantities of beer in violation of the provisions of the Abkari Act. They appeared before the Magistrate and pleaded guilty.

The petitioners were convicted and were sentenced to pay a fine of Rs. 5,000 each. They challenged the conviction and sentence before the Sessions Court arguing that they had not understood the consequences of admitting guilt. The appeal was dismissed as non-maintainable. The petitioners filed the revision petition before the High Court.

When the revision petition was still before the High Court, the petitioners with the permission of the Court approached the Deputy Excise Commissioner, Idukki for compounding the offences. The application was accepted and they were directed to pay the compounding fee.

Justice K. Babu observed that on compounding the prosecution or affected party agrees to terminate the prosecution.

The Court noted that in an earlier case, Surendrads v State of Kerala (2018), the Court on similar facts had acquitted the accused after the composition of the offence and allowed the petition. The conviction and sentence were set aside.

Counsel for the Petitioners: Advocates D. Kishore, Meera Gopinath, R. Muraleekrishnan

Counsel for the Respondents: Public Prosecutor Adv. G. Sudheer

Case No: Crl. Rev. Pet 636 of 2024

Case Title: Salim and Others v State of Kerala and Others

Citation: 2024 LiveLaw (Ker) 516