Bombay High Court
Harsh Umeshchandara Dubey vs The State Of Maharashtra And Anr on 27 July, 2021
Bench: S.S. Shinde, N. J. Jamadar
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IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY
CRIMINAL APPELLATE JURISDICTION
CRIMINAL WRIT PETITION NO. 251 OF 2021
Harsh Umeshchandra Dubey ...Petitioner
Versus
The State of Maharashtra & Anr. ...Respondents
...
Mr. Piyush R. Toshnival for Petitioner.
Mr. V.B. Konde-Deshmukh, APP for State.
Mr. Amit Icham for Respondent No. 2.
Respondent No. 2 is present through VC.
...
CORAM : S. S. SHINDE &
N. J. JAMADAR, JJ.
DATE : 27th JULY, 2021.
ORAL JUDGMENT [PER N.J. JAMADAR, J.]:
1. Rule. Rule made returnable forthwith and heard with the
consent of learned counsel for the parties.
2. This petition under article 226 of the Constitution of
India and Section 482 Code of Criminal Procedure , 1973 ('the
Code'), is filed for quashing and setting aside the FIR No. 133/2019
registered with Ichalkaranji Police Station, Ichalkaranji, for the
offences punishable under Section 406, 420 and 506 of Indian
Penal Code, 1860 ( 'penal code').
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3. The indictment against the petitioner in the said FIR is
that the petitioner had purchased grey cloth material from
Respondent No. 2, Mr. Sanjay Amritkumar Jain- the first informant,
worth Rs. 18,04,225/- and declined to pay the price thereof and
when the first informant demanded the unpaid price, the petitioner
threatened him out of his life. The Respondent No. 2 lodged the
report with the allegation that the petitioner had deceived him and
committed cheating.
4. The learned counsel for the petitioner and Respondent
No. 2 submit that during the pendency of this petition, the dispute
between the petitioner and Respondent No. 2 has been amicably
resolved. The counsels thus, pray for quashing of the FIR in view of
the settlement between the parties.
5. Mr. Sanjay Jain, the Respondent No. 2 has sworn an
affidavit in reply. The paragraph 2 and 3 of the affidavit in reply
read as under:-
2) I say that the said matter has been fully &
finally settled between me and the Petitioner.
Now nothing is due from the Petitioner to me
or to any of my family members or firms. I do
not have any complaint against the
Petitioner. Hence, I do not want to continue
the said prosecution against the Petitioner,
therefore, this is a fit case in which this
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Hon'ble Court may quash the proceedings by
consent of the parties herein.
3) I say that in view of above, I do not wish
to proceed with the C.R. No. 133 of 2019
dated 29/05/2019 registered with
Ichalkaranji Police Station, Ichalkaranji and I
do not want to prosecute the Petitioner
further and withdraw the complaint and all
my allegations against the Petitioner and I
have no objection if relief is granted to the
Petitioner as prayed.
6. Mr. Sanjay Jain, the Respondent No. 2 appeared before
this Court through video conferencing. During the course of
interaction the Respondent No. 2 stated that he has voluntarily
settled the dispute with the Petitioner. The unpaid price of the
goods sold to the Petitioner has been paid to him. He has no
objection for quashing the impugned FIR.
7. In the light of aforesaid submissions, we have perused
the material on record. From the perusal of FIR it becomes
abundantly clear that the genesis of the alleged occurrence is in the
of sale and delivery of goods. Evidently, the transaction is
predominantly of civil nature. The parties have amicably resolved
the dispute, which is essentially of private nature.
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8. The Supreme Court in the case of Giansingh v. State of
Punjab and Another1 has held that, the criminal cases having
overwhelmingly and predominatingly civil flavour stand on a
different footing for the purposes of quashing, particularly the
offences arising from commercial, financial, mercantile, civil,
partnership or such like transactions or the offence arising out of
matrimony relating to dowry, etc. or the family disputes where the
wrong is basically private or personal in nature and the parties have
resolved their entire dispute. In this category of cases, the High
Court may quash the criminal proceedings if in its view, because of
the compromise between the offender and the victim, the possibility
of conviction is remote and bleak and continuation of the criminal
case would put the accused to great oppression and prejudice and
extreme injustice would be caused to him by not quashing the
criminal case despite full and complete settlement and compromise
with the victim. It is further held that, as inherent power is of wide
plenitude with no statutory limitation but it has to be exercised in
accord with the guideline engrafted in such power viz.: (I) to secure
the ends of justice, or (ii) to prevent abuse of the process of any
court.
1 2012 (10) SCC 303
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9. The aforesaid pronouncement applies with equal force to
the facts of the instant case. The alleged offence arose out of a
commercial transaction, which has a predominantly civil flavour. In
view of settlement between the parties, the likelihood of prosecution
ending in a conviction is very remote and bleak. Continuation of the
prosecution would, therefore, not serve any fruitful purpose. On the
contrary, it will cause prejudice to the parties. In view of above, for
securing the ends of justice and preventing the abuse of the process
of the Court, we are inclined to allow the petition. Hence the
following order:-
ORDER
1. The writ petition is allowed, subject to
payment of cost of Rs. 25,000/- by the
Petitioner, within four weeks from today, in
the following bank account.
Bank Name: Bank of India.
Branch Name: Main Branch, Fort, Mumbai.
A/c. Name: "Bar Council of Maharashtra
and Goa Covid-19"
A/c. No.: 000110110013597
IFSC Code: BKID0000001
2. The FIR bearing C.R. No. 133/2019
registered with the Ichalkarnaji Police
Station, Ichalkaranji, for the offences
punishable under Section 406, 420 and 506
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of the Indian Penal Code, 1860, and all the
consequent proceedings, stand quashed.
3. Rule made absolute in the aforesaid extent.
4. The writ petition stands disposed of.
5. Parties to act upon an authenticated copy of
this order.
( N. J. JAMADAR, J.) (S. S. SHINDE, J.)
Bhagyawant Punde
