IMPORTANT POINTDishonour of cheque – Offence of dishonour of cheque is fully compoundable.

ORDER

1. Heard.

2. Leave granted.

3. Appellant herein is an accused in Criminal Complaint Case No.143/2012 initiated by the second respondent for the offence punishable under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act. After trial, appellant came to be convicted by judgment dated 06.05.2014 and sentence to one year simple imprisonment and directed to pay a sum of Rs.28,00,000/- viz., cheque amount was ordered to be paid as compensation under Section 357(3) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 to the complainant - respondent No.2, with default sentence of six months of simple imprisonment. This judgment came to be affirmed by the Sessions Judge in Criminal Appeal No.137/2014 by judgment dated 07.01.2015. A revision preferred against the same by the accused in Criminal Revision No.111/2015 before the High Court of Chhattisgarh which did not yield any result or in other words, it came to be dismissed affirming the concurrent findings by judgment dated 12.08.2024 and on 23.04.2026, appellant No.2 namely, the Director of the first appellant - Company was taken into custody to undergo the sentence. However, within two days thereafter, a settlement was entered into between the parties namely the complainant and the accused on 25.04.2026 whereunder the complainant agreed to compound the offence on receipt of full and final payment of Rs.30,00,000/- from the appellant(s) – accused. The said amount was paid by accused through Demand Draft and duly acknowledged by the complainant. Thus, the grievance of the complainant stood complied.

4. In the light of the said settlement arrived at between the parties for compounding the offence as provided under Section 147 of the NI Act, an application was filed before the JMFC, which came to be rejected and affirmed by the High Court on the ground that judgment cannot be reviewed.

Hence, the present appeal.

5. Having heard the learned Advocates appearing for the parties and in view of the law laid down by this Court in the case of Gian Chand Garg vs. Harpal Singh and Another reported in 2025 SCC OnLine SC 2317 : 2025(6) Supreme 680, we have no hesitation to accept the compromise entered into and compound the offence, particularly in the light of settlement arrived at between the parties.

6. Hence, the present appeal is allowed. Consequently, the impugned judgment dated 11.05.2026 rendered in CRMP No.1328/2026 by the High Court of Chhattisgarh at Bilaspur is set aside and the order of conviction and sentence imposed on the appellant is quashed.

7. The custody certificate dated 01.05.2026 would indicate that appellant is in custody from 23.04.2026 till the date of issuance of certificate and the learned counsel appearing for the appellants would submit that he continues to be in jail. In view of the sentence imposed on him having been quashed hereinabove, we direct the Jail Superintendent, Central Jail, Raipur (C.G.) to forthwith release Mr. Hemant Jain, son of Mr. Nandlal Jain and forward a mail to the Registry of this Court for having complied with this direction.

8. Pending application(s), if any, shall stand disposed of.