UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE OF LEGAL STUDIES

A PROJECT REPORT ON
JUDGMENT, FORMS AND CONTENTS
AND COMPENSATION

Submitted by:-
Submitted to:-
Dishant Mittal
Mr. Sanjeev Sharma
130/15 (13754)

Section C

B.com L.L.B

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 Acknowledgement
Success is a blend of multiple efforts. The final import of this project is also a
result of the sheer hard work and constant support of many people. I would like
to take this opportunity to thank all of them.

To begin with, I would like to express my humble gratitude to my teacher,

Mr. Sanjeev Sharma, for her able guidance and mentoring. The meticulous
manner in which she teaches has paid significantly in the completion of this
project.

Secondly, I would like to thank my department, University Institute of

Legal Studies, Panjab University, Chandigarh, for providing such an
expansive library which provided me all the relevant material required for this
project.

Last but not the least, I would like to express my profound gratitude to my
parents and my friends who have constantly supported and motivated me
throughout this project.

Dishant Mittal

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 Table of Contents
Acknowledgement .................................................................................2

Table of Contents ..................................................................................3

Introduction ...........................................................................................4

Meaning of Judgment ............................................................................5

Pronouncement of Judgment .................................................................6

Forms and Contents of Judgment ..........................................................9

Compensation to Victim......................................................................13

Bibliography ........................................................................................15

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 Introduction
The main functions of a criminal court are twofold:

(1) To decide as to the guilt or innocence of accused person tried before it; and

(2) If such person is found guilty of any offence, to determine as to the appropriate
punishment or other method of dealing with him.

In every trial, irrespective of its nature, the court will have to give a judgment in the case at
the conclusion of the trial and that decision is basically referred to as ‘Judgment’. Chapter
XXVII of the code of 1973 incorporates within itself the scope and ambit of the term
“Judgment” which stretches from S. 353 to 362 of the Code.

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 Meaning of Judgment
The judgment is the final decision of the court, given with reasons, on the questions of the
guilt or innocence of the accused person. It includes the court’s decision as to the punishment
the guilty person has to suffer, or as to the conditions subject to which the offender is to be
released without being punished as such.

The word ‘Judgment’ means a judgment of conviction or acquittal, and not an order of the
discharge or the dismissal of a complaint. The judgment must be completely written when it
is pronounced or explained. The law wisely requires that the reasons for the decision shall
accompany the decision and shall not be left to be subsequently inserted or recorded.1

According to the Black’s Law Dictionary2, a Judgment is the final reasoned decision of the
Court as to the guilt or innocence of the accused. Where the accused is found guilty, the
judgment must also contain an order requiring the accused to undergo punishment or
treatment.

Judgment means an expression of opinion of judge arrived at after due consideration of the
evidence and the arguments. Section 353-362 incorporated in chapter XXVII of the code of
1973 clearly explains the term ‘Judgment”. Judgment is the final reasoned decision of the
Court as to the guilt or innocence of the accused. Where the accused is found guilty, the
judgment must also contain an order requiring the accused to undergo punishment or
treatment. The main features of Judgment are given below:-

1. Judge has to apply his mind to the case.

2. Judgment needs to show that judge has applied his mind to each and every fact and
evidence of the case.
3. Once at conclusion, it is a final decision with respect to conviction or acquittal of the
accused.
4. Judgment must contain concise statement of the case, points of determination, decision on
these points and reasons for such decisions.

1
Woodroffe Sir John, Commentaries on Code of Criminal Procedure, 2nd Ed., Vol. 2, Law Publishers (India)
Private Limited, Allahabad, 1994, p. 1019
2
Henry Campbell Black, Black’s Law Dictionary, 4th Ed.

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 Pronouncement of Judgment
The judgment of the trial court represents the final episode in the trial of the accused. The
rules made by the Code in respect of the delivery or pronouncement of the judgment are
mainly intended to secure certainty in the ascertainment of what the judgment was. Therefore
until the judgment is ‘delivered’ or ‘pronounced’ in compliance with such rules, it is strictly
speaking no “judgment”, and the judge can at such a stage change his mind and make
alterations in the judgment. Section 353 which deals with the modes of pronouncing a
judgment, reads as follows:

353. Judgment.

(1). The judgment in every trial in any Criminal Court of original jurisdiction shall be
pronounced in open court by the presiding officer immediately after the termination of the
trial or at some subsequent time of which notice shall be given to the parties or their
pleaders.

(a) By delivering the whole of the judgment: or

(b) By reading out the whole of the judgment: or

(c) By reading out the operative part of the judgment and explaining the substance of the
judgment in a language, which is understood by the accused or his pleader.

(2) Where the judgment is delivered under clause (a) of sub-section (I), the presiding officer
shall cause it to be taken down in short hand, sign the transcript and every page thereof as
soon as it is made ready, and write on it the date of the delivery of the judgment in open
Court.

(3) Where the judgment or the operative part thereof is read out under clause (b) or clause
(c) of sub-section (1), as the case may be, it shall be dated and signed by the presiding officer
in open court and if it is not written with his own hand, every page of the judgment shall be
signed by him.

(4) Where the judgment is pronounced in the manner specified in clause (c) of sub-section
(1), he whole judgment or a copy thereof shall be immediately made available for the perusal
of the parties or their pleaders free of cost.

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(5) If the accused is in custody, he shall be brought up to hear the judgment pronounced.

(6) If the accused is not in custody, he shall be required by the court to attend to hear the
judgment pronounced, except where his personal attendance during the trial has been
dispensed with and the sentence is one of fine only or he is acquitted:

Provided that, where there are more accused than one, and one or more of them do not
attend the court on the date on which the judgment is to be pronounced, the presiding officer
may, in order to avoid undue delay in the disposal of the case, pronounce the judgment
notwithstanding their absence.

(7) No judgment delivered by any Criminal Court shall be deemed to be invalid by reason
only of the absence of any party or his pleader on the day or from the place notified for the
delivery thereof, or of any omission to serve, or defect in serving, on the parties or their
pleaders, or any of them, the notice of such day and place.

(8) Nothing in this section shall be construed to limit in any way the extent of the provisions
of section 465.

The expression “after the termination of the trial” in Section 353(1) only means after the
entire evidence both on behalf of the prosecution and on behalf of the defense is recorded and
arguments are heard. It cannot however be said that the trial of a criminal case comes to an
end as soon as the evidence is recorded and that the ultimate judgment pronounced in a case
forms no part of a trial.

Where the judgment is pronounced by delivering the whole of it in open court under clause
(a) of sub-section (1) above, the presiding officer is required by sub-section (2) to cause it to
be taken down in short-hand and to sign the transcript and every page thereof as soon as it is
made ready and to write on it the date of the delivery of the judgment in open court. Section
363 requires that where the judgment is appealable by the accused, he is given a certified
copy of the judgment free of cost and without delay. But if the supply of copy of the
judgment is inordinately delayed because of the delay in the preparation of the transcript as
mentioned in sub section (2), the consequence would inevitably be that the accused would not
be able to file an appeal and obtain an order from the appellate court for his release on bail
within a reasonable time even though it be a fit case for his release on bail. Secondly another
result of the above delay would be that a convicted person who is sentenced to undergo
imprisonment for a short period would undergo the entire sentence of imprisonment by the

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time the copy of the judgment is supplied to him. The right of appeal for such a convicted
person would be thus rendered illusory though he may have a good arguable case in appeal.
This would indicate the necessity of speedy and expeditious transcription when the judgment
is delivered in open court under clause (a) of sub-section (1).

The Supreme Court has rightly disapproved the undesirable practice of some judges
delivering judgments after several months since completion of hearing. The court has
correctly perceived it to be a violation of the speedy Trial, a right enshrined in Article 21 of
the Constitution as held in Anil Rai v. State of Bihar3 . The Court has also issued various
guidelines in this particular case to be followed by the Courts in India till Parliament make
measures to deal with the problem of delayed delivery of judgment.

Where the judgment or the operative part thereof is read out under clause (b) or clause (c)of
sub-section (1), it shall be dated and signed by the presiding officer in open Court. However
any other defect or irregularity in such dating and signing can be cured by Section 465. In
Surendra Singh v. State of U.P4. , SC observed that small irregularities in the manner of
pronouncement or the mode of delivery do not matter but the substance of the thing must be
there; that can neither be blurred nor left to inference and conjecture nor can it be vague All
the rest—the manner in which it is to be recorded, the way in which it is to be authenticated,
the signing and the sealing, all the rules designed to secure certainty about its content and
matter—can be cured; but not the hard core, namely, the formal intimation of the decision
and its contents formally declared in a judicial way in open court.

Furthermore, it is quite evident from sub-sections (5) and (6) that it is the duty of the trial
court to secure the attendance of the accused in court at the time of delivering a judgment of
conviction by which the accused is sentenced to a substantive sentence of imprisonment.
However, in order to avoid undue delay in the disposal of the case in which there are two or
more accused persons the court can pronounce the judgment in the absence of any of the
accused persons in the circumstances mentioned in the proviso to sub-section (6).

3
2001 SCC (Cr) 1009
4
AIR 1954 SC 194

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 Forms and Contents of Judgment
Forms and Contents of a judgment to be delivered by the competent authority have been
incorporated u/s 354 of the code of 1973. It reads as follows:

354. Language and contents of judgment.

(1) Except as otherwise expressly provided by this Code, every judgment referred to in
section 353, -

(a) Shall be written in the language of the court;

(b) Shall contain the point or points for determination, the decision thereon and the reasons
for the decision;

(c) Shall specify the offence (if any) of which, and the section of the Indian Penal Code (45 of
1860) or other law under which, the accused is convicted and the punishment to which he is
sentenced;

(d) If it be a judgment of acquittal, shall state the offence of which the accused is acquitted
and direct that he be set at liberty.

(2) When the conviction is under the Indian Penal Code (45 of 1860) and it is doubtful under
which of two sections, or under which of two parts of the same section, of that Code the
offence falls, the court shall distinctly express the same, and pass judgment in the alternative.

(3) When the conviction is for an offence punishable with death or, in the alternative, with
imprisonment for life or imprisonment for a term of years, the judgment shall state the
reasons for the sentence awarded, and, in the case of sentence of death, the special reasons
for such sentence.

(4) When the conviction is for an offence punishable with imprisonment for a term of one
year of more, but the court imposes a sentence of imprisonment for a term of less than three
months, it shall record its reasons for awarding such sentence, unless the sentence is one of
imprisonment till the rising of the court or unless the case was tried summarily under the
provisions of this Code.

(5) When any person is sentenced to death, the sentence shall direct that he be hanged by the
neck till he is dead.

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(6) Every order under section 117 or sub-section (2) of section 138 and every final order
made under section 125, section 145 or section 147 shall contain the point or points for
determination, the decision thereon and the reasons for the decision.

1. According to the above stated section, one of the components is that the Judgment must be
in the language of the court as notified by the state government. Every judgment shall be
written in the language of the court. S. 272 of the Code states that the language of the court is
determined by the State Government. The word “shall” in the above provision indicates that
it is mandatory. The provision in Section 364 for the translation of the judgment- “where the
original is recorded in a language different from that of the court”, would suggest that the
judgment need not necessarily be written in language of the court. Under the Criminal
Procedure Code of 1898, judgments were allowed to be written, and were in fact written in
English. Now under the above provision in the new Code though it is obligatory to write
judgments in the court-language, the old practice of writing judgments in English almost
continues to remain unaffected.

2. Another component is that every judgment shall contain the point or points for
determination, the decision thereon and the reasons for the decision.

According to this component, while giving a judgment, the Court shall decide the points for
determination to finally dispose off the proceedings. Court will give clear findings on those
points. Court will give reasons for those findings. Reasons can be taken from evidence or
from arguments submitted by the parties.

Usually the judgment in a criminal case should commence with a statement of facts in respect
of which the accused person is charged. The judgment should indicate a careful analysis and
appraisement of the evidence while reaching the conclusions regarding the proof of facts. It
is the bounden duty of the magistrate to produce judgment in a case coming before him which
is self-contained and which would show that he has intelligently applied his mind to the facts
of the case and the evidence led therein by the respective parties and a criticism of this
evidence justifying the conclusion to which the magistrate feels persuaded to come. The
Supreme Court has also from time to time directed that all orders passed by the courts should
be speaking orders giving reasons for the decision after noting the point at issue.

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3. Moving further S. 354(1)(c) of the Code of 1973 states that every judgment shall specify
the offence (if any) of which, and the section of the Indian Penal Code or other law under
which, the accused is convicted and the punishment to which he is sentenced.

According to this component, where the accused is convicted, Court will mention the offence
for which he is convicted and the law under which offence is punishable, for example Indian
Penal Code, Prevention of Corruption Act, etc. When the conviction is under the Indian Penal
Code and it is doubtful under which of two sections, or under which of two parts of the same
section of that Code the offence falls, the court shall distinctly express the same, and pass
judgment in the alternative.

4. S. 354(1)(d) of the Code of 1973 states that if it be a judgment of acquittal, it shall state
the offence of which the accused is acquitted and direct that he be set at liberty.

When accused is acquitted, then Court shall state the offence of which he is acquitted and
shall also state that he be set free for this offence. However, if the judgment of acquittal is
given on the ground that the accused was insane at the time at which he is alleged to have
committed the offence charged, the accused shall not be set at liberty by the judgment of
acquittal. For such cases special provisions have been made in the Code.

5. According to S. 354(3) of the Code, when conviction is for an offence punishable with
death sentence or life imprisonment, then judgment shall state reasons for that and incase of
death sentence, special reasons for such sentence should be given.

6. According to S. 354(4) of the Code, when any offence is punishable with imprisonment for
one year or more but the Court has awarded a imprisonment of less than three months
imprisonment then Court has to record reasons but this rule is not applicable if case is tried
summarily or when accused is awarded sentence till the rising of the Court.

7. According to S. 354(5) of the Code, when a person is sentenced to death, the judgment
shall direct that the person be hanged by neck till death. Doctor will ascertain his death.

In the case of State of Maharashtra v. Goraksha Ambaji Adshul5 , it was held that
legislative intent behind S. 354(3) clearly demonstrates the concern of legislature for taking
away of human life and imposing death penalty. Hence the major concern is for dignity of
human life.

5
AIR 2011 SC

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In Sandesh v. State of Maharashtra6 , it was held that despite the paradigm shift in criminal
jurisprudence, the ingredient relating to criminal as well as circumstances of crime have to be
considered by the court at the time of delivery of judgment. The court would have to
determine whether accused is an ir-reformable anti social element to the society.
Consideration of these aspects should automatically result in recording special reasons u/s
354(3) of the code.

6
2013 Cr.L.J. SC

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 Compensation to Victim
Section 357 empowers the court to grant compensation to the victim and to order the payment
of costs of the prosecution. Section 357 reads as follows:

357. Order to pay compensation.

(1) When a Court imposes a sentence of fine or a sentence (including a sentence of death) of
which fine forms a part, the Court may, when passing judgment, order the whole or any part
of the fine recovered to be applied-

(a) in defraying the expenses properly incurred in the prosecution;

(b) in the payment to any person of compensation for any loss or injury caused by the offence,
when compensation is, in the opinion of the Court, recoverable by such person in a Civil
Court;

(c) when any person is convicted of any offence for having caused the death of another
person or of having abetted the commission of such an offence, in paying compensation to the
persons who are, under the Fatal Accidents Act, 1855 (13 of 1855 ), entitled to recover
damages from the person sentenced for the loss resulting to them from such death;

(d) when any person is convicted of any offence which includes theft, criminal
misappropriation, criminal breach of trust, or cheating, or of having dishonestly received or
retained, or of having voluntarily assisted in disposing of, stolen property knowing or having
reason to believe the same to be stolen, in compensating any bona fide purchaser of such
property for the loss of the same if such property is restored to the possession of the person
entitled thereto.

(2) If the fine is imposed in a case which is subject to appeal, no such payment shall be made
before the period allowed for presenting the appeal has elapsed, or, if an appeal be
presented, before the decision of the appeal.

(3) When a Court imposes a sentence, of which fine does not form a part, the Court may,
when passing judgment, order the accused person to pay, by way of compensation, such
amount as may be specified in the order to the person who has suffered any loss or injury by
reason of the act for which the accused person has been so sentenced.

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(4) An order under this section may also be made by an Appellate Court or by the High Court
or Court of Session when exercising its powers of revision.

(5) At the time of awarding compensation in any subsequent civil suit relating to the same
matter, the Court shall take into account any sum paid or recovered as compensation under
this section.

Under the above section compensation can be awarded irrespective of the offence punishable
with fine and fine is actually imposed. The compensation should be payable for any loss or
injury whether physical or pecuniary, and the court shall have due regard to the nature of the
injury.

The scope and the object of the s.357 of the Code of Criminal Procedure were explained by
Supreme Court in Sawarn Singh v. State of Punjab7, wherein it was observed the law which
enables the court to direct compensation to be paid to the dependants is found in S.357 of the
Code of Criminal Procedure. The corresponding provision in the 1898 Code was s.545.
According to S.357, the Court is enabled to direct the accused, who caused the death of
another person, to pay compensation to the persons who are, under the Fatal Accident Act,
1855, entitled to recover damages from the person sentenced, for the loss resulting to them
from such death which the accused person has been so sentenced. The object of the section
therefore, is to provide compensation payable to the persons who are entitled to recover
damages from the person even though fine does not form part of the sentence.

While awarding the amount the compensation the Court must take into the account the nature
of crime, the injury suffered, the justness of the claim for compensation, the capacity of the
accused to pay and other relevant circumstances. If there are more than one accused, quantum
of compensation may be divided equally unless there is considerable variation in their paying
capacity. The payment may also vary depending upon the acts of each accused. Reasonable
period for payment for compensation, if necessary, by installments, may also be given. The
Court may enforce the order by imposing sentence in default. Where power of speech of
victim of offence is impaired permanently the amount of compensation may be enhanced.

7
AIR 1978 SC 1525

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 Bibliography
Books
1. Kelkar R. V., Criminal Procedure, 6th Ed., Eastern Book Comapany, Lucknow, 2014
2. Misra S. N., The Code Of Criminal Procedure.

Websites:

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_of_Criminal_Procedure,_1973
2. http://www.vakilno1.com/bareacts/crpc/the-code-of-criminal-procedure-1973
3. www.scconline.com

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