Interim Victim Compensation Cannot Be Imposed As A Condition For Bail: Supreme Court

The Supreme Court observed that interim victim compensation cannot be imposed as a condition for bail.

"Victim compensation is simultaneous with the final view taken in respect of the alleged offence, i.e., whether it was so committed or not and, thus, there is no question of any imposition pre-finality of the matter pre-trial", the bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Abhay S Oka observed.

The bench was allowing an appeal filed against Jharkhand High Court order.

The High Court while granting anticipatory bail to a person accused of offence under Section 498A IPC ordered that 'in the event of his arrest or surrender within a period of four months from the date of this order, he shall be released on bail on depositing a demand draft of Rs. 4,00,000/- as ad interim victim compensation drawn in favour of complainant'.

Terming this as 'judicial misadventure;, the Apex court bench noted that recently in Dharmesh v. State of Gujarat (2021) 7 SCC 198, it was opined that it was clear from the plain reading of Section 357 that such compensation can only arise after the conclusion of trial albeit, of course, the same being a matter of discretion.

"The High Court’s direction to the accused for deposit of compensation for the legal heirs of the deceased (victim), as a condition for the bail cannot be sustained and, thus, logically set aside. . The Court opined that the objective is clear that in cases of offences against body, compensation to the victim should be methodology for redemption. Similarly, to prevent unnecessary harassment, compensation has been provided where meaningless criminal proceedings had been started. Such a compensation can hardly be determined at the stage of grant of bail.", the bench observed while setting aside the condition imposed by the High Court.

Case details

Talat Sanvi vs State of Jharkhand | 2023 LiveLaw (SC) 83 | CrA 205/2023 | 24 Jan 2023 | Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Abhay S. Oka

For Petitioner(s) Mr. Ganesh Khanna, Adv. Mr. Gaurav Kumar, Adv. Mr. Armoghan Mumtaz, Adv. Mr. Himanshu Bhushan, AOR; For Respondent(s) Mr. Vishnu Sharma, Adv. Ms. Madhusmita Bora, AOR Mr. Dipankar Singh, Adv. Mrs. Anupama Sharma, Adv. Mr. Riju Raj Singh Jamwal, Adv. Mr. Bir Inder Singh Gurm, Adv. Mr. Manish Kumar, Adv. Ms. Anum Hussain, Adv.

Headnotes

Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 ; Section 437-439 , Section 357 -  Interim victim compensation cannot be imposed as a condition for anticipatory bail - Question of interim victim compensation cannot form part of the bail jurisprudence - Victim compensation is simultaneous with the final view taken in respect of the alleged offence, i.e., whether it was so committed or not and, thus, there is no question of any imposition pre-finality of the matter pre-trial - In cases of offences against body, compensation to the victim should be methodology for redemption. Similarly, to prevent unnecessary harassment, compensation has been provided where meaningless criminal proceedings had been started. Such a compensation can hardly be determined at the stage of grant of bail.

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