The petitioner herein stands convicted and sentenced under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act. The conviction was confirmed in appeal, and also in revision before this Court. However, this Court modified the sentence, reducing the substantive sentence to imprisonment till rising of the court, and directed the petitioner to make payment of compensation of ₹2,70,000/- to the complainant under Section 357(3) of the Code of Criminal Procedure. Time for payment was later extended by this Court. Still the petitioner could not make payment in time. He did not surrender before the trial court also. Now he has come before this Court for a direction to the court below under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure to record payment of compensation and to permit him to serve out the sentence till rising of the Court. He says that he has made payment of compensation to the complainant directly. The complainant is represented by counsel. The learned counsel for the complainant submits that the complainant has received the amount directly from the petitioner. Still the matter requires some procedure, and payment will have to be recorded in the Crl.M.C No.7021 of 2014 2 proceeding in the trial court. In view of the decisions of this Court in Beena V. Balakrishnan Nair and another (2010(2) KHC 851) and Sivankutty v. John Thomas and another (2012(3) KHC 676) the petitioner can be permitted to surrender before the trial court to serve out the sentence and make application to record payment of compensation in the proceeding. He will have to surrender within a short period of seven days and make application. True, it is that, payment is admitted before this Court. Still as a procedural formality, the petitioner will have to make application to record payment of compensation, and convince the learned Magistrate that he has made payment of compensation directly. If the payment is so proved, it will have recorded by the learned Magistrate.
In the result, this Criminal Miscellaneous Case is closed with direction to the court below that in case the petitioner surrenders within a period of seven days from this date to serve out the sentence and make application for recording payment of compensation, it shall be entertained, and if payment is proved, it shall be recorded in the proceeding.
P.UBAID JUDGE ab