Crl. R No. 250 of 2011 (O&M) ::1:: IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Crl. R No. 250 of 2011 (O&M) Date of decision : March 21, 2011 Gulshan Kumar, ...... Petitioner, v. State of Haryana and another, ...... Respondents *** CORAM : HON'BLE MR.JUSTICE AJAY TEWARI *** Present : Mr. Pardeep Solath, Advocate for the petitioner. Ms. Shalini Attri, DAG Haryana for respondent No.1. Mr. R.K.Chaudhary, Advocate for respondent No.2. *** 1. Whether Reporters of Local Newspapers may be allowed to see the judgment ? 2. To be referred to the Reporters or not ? 3. Whether the judgment should be reported in the Digest ? *** AJAY TEWARI, J (Oral) This revision petition has been filed against the order dated 25.10.2010 whereby the petitioner has been directed to create bank security of the amount which had been ordered by the trial Court as compensation to be paid to the respondent. The dispute relates to the cheque in the amount of Rs.9 lacs in Crl. R No. 250 of 2011 (O&M) ::2:: regard to which respondent No.2 had initiated proceedings against the petitioner under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881. The trial Court allowed the complaint and directed compensation of Rs.9 lacs to be paid by the petitioner to respondent No.2, as noticed above. The petitioner filed an appeal against the said order and having been directed to make a fixed deposit, has approached this Court. Counsel for the petitioner has relied upon a judgment of the Hon'ble Supreme Court in Dalip.S.Dahanukar vs Kotak Mahindra Co. Ltd & Anr, 2007(2) RCR (Criminal) 636 to urge that once the appeal was admitted for regular hearing, the amount of compensation would automatically remain suspended. He has particularly relied upon paras 43, 46 and 49 of the said judgment. It may be noticed that in Dalip.S.Dahanukar's case (supra), the question before their Lordships was whether payment of compensation to the complainant should be allowed or stayed. In the present case, as noticed above, compensation has not been ordered to be paid to the complainant but only a bank guarantee has been ordered to be created so as to ensure that in the event of failure of the appeal, the compensation is readily available to the complainant. It cannot be lost sight of the fact that in the ultimate conclusions in Dalip.S.Dahanukar's case (supra), the Hon'ble Supreme Court held as follows :- “75. We are prima facie of the opinion (without going into the merit of the appeal) that the direction of the learned Trial Judge appears to be somewhat unreasonable. Appellant herein has been sentenced to imprisonment. Only fine has been imposed on the Company. Thus, for all intent and purpose, the learned Trial Judge has invoked both Sub-Section 141 of the Negotiable Instruments Act. The question may also have Crl. R No. 250 of 2011 (O&M) ::3:: to be considered from the angle that the learned Trial Judge thought it fit to impose a fine of Rs.25,000/- only upon the Company. If that be so, a question would arise as to whether an amount of compensation for a sum of Rs.15 lakhs should have been directed to be paid by the Chairman of the Company. We feel that it is not. We, therefore, are of the opinion : i) In a case of this nature, Sub-Section (2) of Section 357 of the Code of Criminal Procedure would be attracted even when Appellant was directed to pay compensation; (ii) The Appellate Court, however, while suspending the sentence, was entitled to put the appellant on terms. However, no such term could be put as a condition precedent for entertaining the appeal which is a constitutional and statutory right; (iii) The amount of compensation must be a reasonable sum; (iv) The Court, while fixing such amount, must have regard to all relevant factors including the one referred to in Sub-Section (5) of 357 of the Code of Criminal Procedure; (v) No unreasonable amount of compensation can be directed to be paid.” In my opinion, the case of the petitioner would be covered by condition no. (ii) quoted above. Consequently, this petition is dismissed. ( AJAY TEWARI ) March 21, 2011. JUDGE `kk'