Assertion (A): In certain offences, the State which conducts the prosecution and the accused can come to an arrangement where, instead of being imprisoned, the accused can pay a fine. These are cognisable offences.

Reasoning (R): Some of the criminal offences have been made compoundable in India.

A is false but R is correct.

Compoundable and non-compoundable offences: In certain offences, the State which conducts the prosecution and the accused can come to an arrangement where, instead of being imprisoned, the accused can pay a fine. These are compoundable offences. The most common example of this is where you get caught without a ticket on a bus or a train and have to pay a fine. In this case, the officer fining you is in fact compounding your offence. Of course not all offences are compoundable; it would not be desirable that murderers should be able to compound their offences.