Compoundable offences are those offences where the complainant, who has instituted the suit against the accused, has the ability or capacity to compromise with the accused and withdraw the said suit. The withdrawing of suit should be bonafide and should not take place because of undue influence or any other reason. The complainant must also not take any consideration to which they are not entitled to, for withdrawing the suit.
Compoundable offences are mentioned in section 320 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. Section 320 of the code mentions those offences which are compoundable along with the persons by whom each offence can be compounded.
The compoundable offences are further of two types i.e. those which do not require the prior permission of the court and those offences which do under the sections 320(1) and 320(2) of the Criminal Procedural Code respectively. The first of this i.e. those offences which can be compounded without the permission of the court are mentioned in Section 320(1) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973. The table which follows Section 320(1) gives a detailed list of the offences that are compoundable and do not require the permission of the court. The section also tells about the persons who have the ability to compound the offence. Such offences include- theft, cheating, defamation with some exceptions, criminal trespass, adultery etc. For e.g. in case of breach of IPC Section 497, crime of Adultery, the husband of the woman is considered the victim, so his consent is required for compounding. Even if the woman had entered into the ‘crime’ wilfully and knowingly, it has no bearing on the matter and in such cases the permission of the court is not required.
The Second type i.e. those which require the permission of the court are mentioned under Section 320(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 gives a detailed list of the offences that are compoundable and do require the permission of the court. The section also mentions those persons who can compound the offence. Such offences include- causing miscarriage, bigamy, criminal breach of trust etc. These offences are graver than the previous kind and so these offences require the permission of the court before compounding.
Compoundable offences have some specific features which include the following –
- Compoundable offences are less serious in nature as compared to the Non-Compoundable offences i.e. the offences are less heinous and under no circumstance affect the society at large.
- For compoundable offences list of persons who can compound is given under Section 320 (1) and Section 320(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973.
- The parties in the case of compoundable offences are mainly private parties while in case of non-compoundable offences it is the state which is the main party.
The simple procedure for withdrawing a compoundable offence is that one needs to inform the authorities regarding the compounding of the case and its result and also about the compensation if involved.
