PANAJI
The High Court of Bombay at Goa has quashed the conviction of a woman in a cheque bounce case after she deposited the full compensation amount, paid costs to the legal services authority and secured the complainant’s consent to compound the offence.
In an order pronounced this week, Justice Amit Jamsandekar allowed an application filed by Priya Hoble and set aside concurrent findings of the trial and appellate courts.
The applicant had challenged the April 15, 2024 judgment of the Additional Sessions Judge at Mapusa, which had rejected her appeal and confirmed the conviction and sentence imposed on January 16, 2016 by the Judicial Magistrate First Class at Bicholim.
The trial court had convicted her for an offence under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881, sentencing her to six months’ imprisonment and directing her to pay compensation of Rs 1.10 lakh to The Ashtagandha Urban Co-operative Credit Society Ltd.
During the pendency of the appeal, the applicant deposited Rs 25,500 before the Sessions Court. Thereafter, while the revision was pending before the High Court, she deposited the entire compensation amount before the court and, by an application dated July 15, 2025, sought permission to compound the offence.
Appearing for the society, advocate Manish Salkar, on instructions, tendered his no objection to the compounding of the offence.
The court held that “the conviction and sentence imposed upon the Applicant by Judgment and Order dated 16.01.2016 … and as upheld by the Judgment and Order dated 15.04.2024 … is quashed and set aside and the Applicant stands acquitted.”
Taking note of the applicant’s no objection to the withdrawal of the deposited sums, the High Court permitted the complainant society to withdraw Rs 25,500 deposited before the Sessions Court and the entire compensation amount deposited before the High Court, along with accrued interest, if not already withdrawn. With this, both the criminal miscellaneous application and the connected criminal revision application were disposed of.
