1. The question of law involved in this suo motu revision case is whether an appeal will abate under Section 394 (2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (hereinafter referred to as 'Cr.P.C' for short), on the death of the appellant, in a case involving sentence of jail and fine. The four accused in C.C No.16 of 2004 before the Chief Judicial Magistrate Court, Thalassery were convicted on trial under Section 3 (a) of the Railway Property (Unlawful Possession) Act. On conviction, they were sentenced to undergo simple imprisonment for one year each and to pay a fine of Rs. 2000/-each by judgment dated 16.12.2004. Aggrieved by the conviction and sentence, the 1st accused in the said case preferred appeal before the Court of Session, Thalassery as Crl. A. No.18 of 2005. Pending the appeal, the appellant died. In such a circumstance, the learned Additional Sessions Judge (Adhoc-III), Thalassery closed the appeal as abated under Section 394 (2) of Cr.P.C, and made a further direction to recover the amount of fine from the assets of the deceased-appellant.

2. On getting the case records from the Court of Session, the then Chief Judicial Magistrate addressed this Court through the Di