The court has said that it is not necessary that the suit for compensation be filed only when he is finally convicted by a court of law.
In a judgment that is likely to have wide ramifications in cases of murder, particularly for the victim’s family, the Supreme Court has ruled that the dependants of the victim in such cases can claim compensation from the killer. They can file a claim before a civil court to determine the monetary loss caused to the family. At present, the culprit invariably ends up in jail, but there is little financial compensation to the victim’s kin.
The court has said that it is not necessary that the suit for compensation be filed only when he is finally convicted by a court of law.
A suit of a civil nature in murder cases filed before the date on which the plaintiff (victim) becomes actually entitled to sue and claim relief “should not necessarily be dismissed’’, a bench of justices Aftab Alam and RM Lodha said on Thursday.
Legal analysts feel the judgment could lead to huge scope for a large number of people whose kin are killed in different kinds of mishaps, including homicides and intentional assaults.
The bench was hearing the petition of Raghbinder Singh, a convict in a murder case, who had challenged a Punjab and Haryana high court judgment which had asked him to pay Rs2 lakh as compensation to the widow of Lal Singh, the victim, and her children.
Bant Kaur, the widow, had filed a civil suit stating Lal Singh was the sole breadwinner in the family and the loss to the family after his death could not be compensated under criminal law. The civil court awarded Rs2 lakh as compensation.
Raghbinder Singh, however, contested this, saying Kaur had moved the civil court much before he was convicted by the high court.
His lawyer Rishi Malhotra said the civil suit was filed at a premature stage. He said the murder took place on August 7, 1994, and Kaur filed the suit on December 20, 1994. Not even the chargesheet in the case was filed by then.
He contended that the culpability of the accused was yet to be judged in a criminal trial. The trial court’s judgment came on August 17, 1996, and the high court upheld the verdict on November 20, 2004. On August 18, 2005, the apex court also confirmed he sentence. Thus, the suit filed by Kaur was not maintainable on the date it was filed, he added.
However, the bench declined to accept his plea and confirmed the compensation for Lal Singh’s family.
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