Kerala Abkari (Amended) Act, 1997:
ss.8(1) and (2) – Trial court convicted the appellant and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for six months with a fine amount of Rs. 1 lakh and, in default in payment of fine amount, to undergo simple imprisonment for another period of three months – High Court upheld the conviction but modified the sentencing by reducing the jail sentence from “six months rigorous imprisonment” to three months simple imprisonment” and in default of payment of fine amount, “three months simple imprisonment” to “two weeks simple imprisonment” – Aggrieved appellant filed instant appeal – Plea of appellant was that she was poor lady having no criminal antecedents and means to pay a fine amount of Rs. 1 lakh – Held: s.8(2) of the Act prescribes a punishment for an offence punishable under s.8(1) which may extend to 10 years and with fine amount which shall not be less than Rs. 1 lakh – Thus it is mandatory for imposing “Jail Sentence” and “Fine Amount” under s.8(2) – The discretion to award jail sentence, however, varies upto 10 years but not beyond it – In other words, the Court has the jurisdiction to impose jail sentence for any period but such period cannot exceed
10 years – The maximum limit to impose jail sentence is fixed as 10 years – How much jail sentence should be imposed would vary from case to case – So far as the imposition of fine amount along with award of jail sentence is concerned, it is also mandatory and it cannot be less than Rs. 1 lakh – In the instant case, the appellant is a lady and is living below the poverty line and has no means to pay a sum of Rs. 1 lakh to the State – She was not involved in any criminal case in the past and nor was she ever involved in the case relating to the offences punishable under the Act – She is above 50 years of age – She was found in possession of only 3 liters of arrack which resulted in her conviction – The case is almost 12 years old from now and she has already undergone two and a half months jail sentence out of total jail sentence of 3 months awarded to her – In view of these factors and having regard to the totality of the facts and circumstances of the case, the appellant’s jail sentence is modified from “3 months” to “already undergone” and also the default sentence reduced from “two weeks” to that of the “one week” in the event, she is not able to deposit the mandatory fine amount of Rs. 1 lakh within one month – In this view of the matter, the appellant is not now required to undergo the substantive jail sentence of 3 month– However, if the appellant fails to deposit the fine amount of Rs. 1 lakh within one month, she will have to undergo one week jail sentence on account of non-deposit of fine amount of Rs. 1 lakh within the prescribed time – Sentence/Sentencing.
Kerala Abkari (Amended) Act, 1997: s.8(2) – Sentence – Court has the jurisdiction to impose jail sentence for any period but such period cannot exceed 10 years – The maximum limit to impose jail sentence is fixed as 10 years.
Kerala Abkari (Amended) Act, 1997: s.8(2) – Fine – The Court has no jurisdiction to impose fine amount less than Rs.1 lakh because minimum limit prescribed under s.8 (2) is Rs. 1 lakh – A “fortiori”, the Court has discretion to impose a fine amount more than Rs. 1 lakh because there is no upper limit prescribed in law for imposing fine amount exceeding Rs. 1 lakh.
As published in the Supreme Court Reports, Supreme Court of India. Text from the Indian Supreme Court Judgments open data set (Dattam Labs), CC BY 4.0.
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