A Division Bench of the Kerala High Court has held that a victim or a legal heir of the victim in a criminal case has a right to file an appeal under Section 372 of the Criminal Procedure Code (Cr.PC) before a competent court for getting adequate compensation.
The Bench comprising Justice K.T. Sankaran and Justice Raja Vijayaraghavan passed the verdict on an appeal filed by K.C. Vanaja of Kannur, mother of a murdered person, against the Thalassery Additional Sessions Court order refusing to grant compensation to her while convicting the accused. The court held that a fair, reasonable, and pragmatic interpretation of Section 372 of the Cr.PC would be that a victim would get a right of appeal challenging the judgment of the court below when the court below has either granted no compensation or granted compensation which is not adequate.