Punjab-Haryana High Court
Gursewak Singh And Ors vs State Of Punjab And Anr on 5 July, 2022
IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA
AT CHANDIGARH
271
CRM-M-3978-2022
Date of decision: 05.07.2022
GURSEWAK SINGH AND OTHERS ........Petitioners
VERSUS
STATE OF PUNJAB AND ANOTHER ....Respondents
CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE VINOD S. BHARDWAJ
Present: Mr. Rajesh Verma, Advocate for
Mr. P.S.Virk, Advocate
for the petitioner.
Ms. Amarjit Kaur Khurana, DAG, Punjab.
Mr. Mukesh Verma, Advocate
for respondent No.2.
*****
VINOD S. BHARDWAJ. J.(Oral)
1. By means of the instant petition, the jurisdiction of this
Court under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973
(hereinafter referred to as "Cr.P.C.") has been invoked for seeking
quashing of FIR No. 114 dated 02.11.2021 under Sections 452, 323, 324,
148 and 149 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (hereinafter referred to as
"IPC") registered at Police Station Makhu District Ferozepur (Annexure
P-1) and all other consequential proceedings arising there from, on the
basis of compromise dated 10.01.2022 (Annexure P-2) entered between
the parties.
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2. The parties were directed to appear before the learned trial
Court/Illaqa Magistrate vide orders dated 11.02.2022 of this Court, to get
their statements recorded regarding the compromise arrived at between
the parties and a report in this regard was called for.
3. Pursuant to the said order, report has been received from the
Judicial Magistrate First Class, Zira vide Memo No. 207 dated
14.03.2022. The relevant extracted of the report is reproduced as under:-
"4. On 04.03.2022 statement of Investigating
Officer ASI Jhirmal Singh, No. 1526/FZR, posted at P.S.
Makhu has also been recorded. As per statement of
Investigating Officer there are five persons arrayed as
accused in the FIR namely (1) Gursewak Singh son of
Mukhtiar Singh, (2) Gurdev Singh son of Surjit Singh, (3)
Jagroop Singh son of Hardeep Singh, (4) Manpreet Kaur
wife of Jagroop Singh and (5) Jaswinder Singh son of
Harbans Singh are involved in this case.
5. As per statement of Investigating Officer, no
acccused is declared proclaimed offender in the present
case.
6. As per statement of Investigating Officer,
challan is still pending with the police and the same has not
been presented in the Court till date.
7. After going through the statements of the parties
and on asking the parties, it is crystallized that the
compromise has been arrived at genuinely and is made
voluntarily and without any coercion or undue influence."
4. Learned State counsel does not dispute the factum of the
compromise amongst the parties and does not have any serious objection
to the resolution of the dispute amongst the parties.
5. Mr. Mukesh Verma, Advocate, appears on behalf of
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respondents No. 2 and reiterates the settlement and his concurrence to the
FIR and all the other consequential proceedings being quashed.
6. The Full Bench of this Court in the matter of "Kulwinder
Singh and others versus State of Punjab and another" reported as
(Punjab and Haryana High Court) : 2007 (3) RCR (Criminal) 1052 has
been observed as under :
'(28) To conclude, it can safely be said that there can never
be any hard and fast category which can be prescribed to
enable the Court to exercise its power under Section 482 of
the Cr.P.C. The only principle that can be laid down is the
one which has been incorporated in the Section itself, i.e.,
"to prevent abuse of the process of any Court" or "to secure
the ends of justice".
(29) In Mrs. Shakuntala Sawhney v. Mrs. Kaushalya
Sawhney and Ors., Hon'ble Krishna Iyer, J. aptly
summoned up the essence of compromise in the following
words:
"The finest hour of justice arrives propitiously when parties,
despite falling apart, bury the hatchet and weave a sense of
fellowship of reunion."
(30) The power to do complete justice is the very essence of
every judicial justice dispensation system. It cannot be
diluted by distorted perceptions and is not a slave to
anything, except to the caution and circumspection, the
standards of which the Court sets before it, in exercise of
such plenary and unfettered power inherently vested in it
while donning the cloak of compassion to achieve the ends
of justice.
(31) No embargo, be in the shape of Section 320(9) of the
Cr.P.C., or any other such curtailment, can whittle down the
power under Section 482 of the Cr.P.C.
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(32) The compromise, in a modern society, is the sine qua
non of harmony and orderly behaviour. It is the soul of
justice and if the power under Section 482 of the Cr.P.C. is
used to enhance such a compromise which, in turn,
enhances the social amity and reduces friction, then it truly
is "finest hour of justice". Disputes which have their genesis
in a matrimonial discord, landlord-tenant matters,
commercial transactions and other such matters can safely
be dealt with by the Court by exercising its powers under
Section 482 of the Cr.P.C. in the event of a compromise, but
this is not to say that the power is limited to such cases.
There can never be any such rigid rule to prescribe the
exercise of such power, especially in the absence of any
premonitions to forecast and predict eventualities which the
cause of justice may throw up during the course of a
litigation.
(33) The only inevitable conclusion from the above
discussion is that there is no statutory bar under the Cr.P.C.
which can affect the inherent power of this Court under
Section 482. Further, the same cannot be limited to
matrimonial cases alone and the Court has the wide power
to quash the proceedings even in non-compoundable
offences notwithstanding the bar under Section 320 of the
Cr.P.C., in order to prevent the abuse of law and to secure
the ends of justice.
(34) The power under Section 482 of the Cr.P.C. is to be
exercised Ex-Debitia Justitia to prevent an abuse of process
of Court. There can neither be an exhaustive list nor the
defined para-meters to enable a High Court to invoke or
exercise its inherent powers. It will always depend upon the
facts and circumstances of each case. The power under
Section 482 of the Cr.P.C. has no limits. However, the High
Court will exercise it sparingly and with utmost care and
caution. The exercise of power has to be with
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circumspection and restraint. The Court is a vital and an
extra-ordinary effective instrument to maintain and control
social order. The Courts play role of paramount importance
in achieving peace, harmony and ever-lasting congeniality
in society. Resolution of a dispute by way of a compromise
between two warring groups, therefore, should attract the
immediate and prompt attention of a Court which should
endeavour to give full effect to the same unless such
compromise is abhorrent to lawful composition of the
society or would promote savagery.
7. The legal principles as laid down for quashing of the
judgment were also approved by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in the matter
of 'Gian Singh Versus State of Punjab and another,(2012)10 SCC303'.
Still further, the broad principles for exercising the powers under Section
482 were summarized by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in the matter of
'Parbatbhai Aahir @ Parbatbhai Bhimsinhbhai Karmur and others
versus State of Gujarat and another" (2017) 9 SCC 641'.
8. It is evident that in view of the amicable resolution of the
issues amongst the parties, no useful purpose would be served by
continuation of the proceedings. The furtherance of the proceedings is
likely to be a waste of judicial time and there appears to be no chances of
conviction.
9. The Hon'ble Supreme Court has held in the matter of
'Ramgopal And Another Vs State of Madhya Pradesh, 2021 SCC
Online SC 834', that the matters which can be categorized as personal in
nature or in the matter in which the nature of injuries do not exhibit
mental depravity or commission of an offence of such a serious nature
that quashing of which would override public interest, the Court can
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quash the FIR in view of the settlement arrived at amongst the parties.
The observation of the Hon'ble Supreme Court is extracted as under:-
19. We thus sum-up and hold that as opposed to Section 320
Cr.P.C. where the Court is squarely guided by the
compromise between the parties in respect of offences
'compoundable' within the statutory framework, the extra-
ordinary power enjoined upon a High Court under Section
482 Cr.P.C. or vested in this Court under Article 142 of the
Constitution, can be invoked beyond the metes and bounds of
Section 320 Cr.P.C. Nonetheless, we reiterate that such
powers of wide amplitude ought to be exercised carefully in
the context of quashing criminal proceedings, bearing in
mind: (i) Nature and effect of the offence on the conscious of
the society; (ii) Seriousness of the injury, if any; (iii)
Voluntary nature of compromise between the accused and
the victim; & (iv) Conduct of the accused persons, prior to
and after the occurrence of the purported offence and/or
other relevant considerations.
10. The following relevant factors emerge from perusal of the
case as well as the subsequent developments supplementing a case for
invocation of the powers under Section 482 Cr.P.C.:-
i) The present FIR was registered due to a land dispute among
the parties who are neighbours.
ii) The matter is still under investigation as challan has not been
filed yet. The case is still at the initial stage as the FIR was
registered in 2021.
iii) Petitioner No.1, 2 and 4 are in their thirties and Petitioner
No.3 is 41 years old and continued incarceration of the
petitioners is likely to cause severe repercussions to the
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petitioners in discharge of their social obligations as well as
in their work place.
iv) Petitioner No. 5 is 60 years of age and protraction of the
criminal trial will cause mental agony to the petitioners in
their old age.
v) That the parties are neighbours & continuation of
proceedings is likely to spoil the peaceful atmosphere of the
neighbourhood.
vi) The offence in question cannot be said to be heinous or as an
offence that would be shocking to the conscience of the
society or public at large. It can also not be termed as one
shocking to the conscience of the Court;
vii) Continuation of the proceedings and forcing the parties to
undergo rigours of criminal proceedings is not likely to sub-
serve any large public interest;
viii) The proceedings are likely to end in futility for want of
parties to support the case of the prosecution;
ix) No larger public purpose would be served by continuation of
the proceedings;
x) Parties do not suffer any criminal antecedents and have not
indulged in any such or similar case during the pendency of
the case or after registration of the FIR.
xi) The complainant is not likely to support the case of the
prosecution. Continuation of the proceedings is likely to be a
waste of judicial time. The object of law is well served when
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the parties resolve their differences and choose to peacefully
co-exist and live in harmony.
11. In view of the report of the Judicial Magistrate First Class,
Zira and the principles laid down by the Apex Court in Gian Singh Vs.
State of Punjab and others (2012) 10 SCC 303, as well as Ramgopal
And Another Vs State of Madhya Pradesh 2021 SCC Online SC 834
and also by the Full Bench of this Court in Kulwinder Singh and others
Vs. State of Punjab and another, 2007(3) RCR (Criminal) 1052, the
instant petition is allowed. The aforesaid FIR No. 114 dated 02.11.2021
under Sections 452, 323, 324, 148 and 149 of the Indian Penal Code,
1860 (hereinafter referred to as "IPC") registered at Police Station Makhu
District Ferozepur (Annexure P-1) and all other consequential
proceedings arising there from are hereby quashed qua the petitioners in
view of compromise dated 10.01.2022 (Annexure P-2). However, the
same would be subject to payment of costs of Rs.10,000/- to be deposited
by the each petitioner with the "District Legal Service Authority,
Ferozepur, Punjab", within one month from receipt of certified copy of
this order.
Petition is allowed.
(VINOD S. BHARDWAJ)
JULY 05, 2022 JUDGE
Vishal Sharma
Whether speaking/reasoned : Yes/No
Whether Reportable : Yes/No
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