JOIN USThe Supreme Court on Wednesday said that a person can be sent to jail if he fails to pay a compensation on court orders.
A bench headed by Justice Aftab Alam said the order for the compensation would be ineffective without the fear of entailing jail term for the accused in case of default in its payment.
“If merely an order, directing compensation, is passed, it would be totally ineffective. It could be an order without any deterrence or apprehension of immediate adverse consequences in case of its non-observance. The whole purpose of giving relief to the complainant of the Code would be frustrated,” the bench said.
“The conclusion, therefore, is that the order to pay compensation may be enforced by awarding sentence in default,” it said after citing various judgments of the apex court.
The bench gave its ruling while setting aside a Madras High Court’s order which had held that an order for compensation cannot be enforced by awarding sentence in case of default in its payment.
It restored a magisterial court’s order which had awarded two months imprisonment to an accused in default of payment of a compensation.