Punjab-Haryana High Court
Beant Singh vs State Of Punjab And Another on 6 September, 2022
CRM-M-35299-2020 1
IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT
CHANDIGARH
CRM-M-35299-2020
Date of Decision: September 06, 2022
Beant Singh
...Petitioner
Versus
State of Punjab and another
...Respondents
CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE SANJAY VASHISTH
Present: Mr. Sukmeet Singh, Advocate,
for the petitioner.
Mr. Anmol Singh Sandhu, AAG, Punjab.
Mr. A.S. Dhindsa, Advocate,
for Mr. Kulwinder Singh, Advocate,
for respondent No. 2.
SANJAY VASHISTH, J.
1. The present petition under Section 482, Cr.P.C., has been
filed by Beant Singh, for quashing of FIR No. 142, dated 09.10.2020
(Annexure P-1), for the offences punishable under Sections 353, 186, 332
and 506 IPC, registered at Police Station Sadar, Faridkot, District
Faridkot, and all the consequential proceedings arising therefrom, on the
basis of compromise dated 19.10.2020 (Annexure P-2).
2. Vide order dated 02.11.2020, the affected parties were
directed to appear before the learned trial Court/Illaqa Magistrate, for
getting their respective statements recorded with regard to the
PRASHANT KAPOOR
2022.09.06 18:50
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authenticity of this
order/judgment
compromise. The trial Court/Illaqa Magistrate was to submit a report in
this regard giving certain details as enumerated in the said order.
3. Pursuant to the order dated 02.11.2020, passed by this Court,
the parties have appeared before learned Additional Chief Judicial
Magistrate, Faridkot, and as per report dated 02.12.2020, submitted to
this Court, both the parties have got recorded their respective statements
in Court. The operative part of the report received from learned Court
below is as under:-
" From the statement of the parties, named above, and
the investigating officer SI Bhupinder Singh No. 39/BTRT, as
recorded on 01.12.2020, the point-wise information is
furnished as under:-
(i) There is only one person, namely Beant Singh son of
Resham Singh, arrayed as accused in the FIR.
(ii) None has been declared as proclaimed
offender/absconder in the case.
(iii) Matter is at the stage of investigation and challan is
yet to be presented in the Court.
(iv) From the statement of the complainant Gurdas Singh
(Home Guard) son of Inder Singh, it appears that he has
voluntary, without any coercion or undue influence,
compromised the matter with the accused Beant Singh son of
Resham Singh and their compromise appears to be
genuine."
4. Learned counsel for the petitioner urged that due to
intervention of the respectable and elderly people of the society, the
matter has been resolved and private parties have effected a compromise
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dated 19.10.2020 (Annexure P-2). At present, there remains no dispute
amongst the private parties. He further submits that in view of the
compromise so effected between the private parties, pendency of the
impugned FIR and consequential proceedings emanating therefrom
would be sheer abuse of the process of law.
5. Learned State counsel as also learned counsel for respondent
No. 2, after going through the statements and the report received from
learned Court below, very fairly admit that the private parties have
resolved their dispute and effected a compromise and that they have no
objection if the impugned FIR and all the consequential proceedings are
quashed on the basis of the compromise.
6. The Full Bench of this Court in the matter of Kulwinder
Singh and others v. State of Punjab and another, 2007 (3) RCR
(Criminal) 1052, has 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 others, 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
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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.
(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 circumspection
and restraint. The Court is a vital and an extra-ordinary
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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 criminal
proceedings were also approved by Hon'ble the Supreme Court in the
matter of Gian Singh v. State of Punjab and another, ( 2012) 10 SCC
303. Furthermore, the broad principles for exercising the powers under
Section 482 were summarized by Hon'ble the Supreme Court in the
matter of Parbatbhai Aahir @ Parbatbhai Bhimsinhbhai Karmur and
others v. State of Gujarat and another, (2017) 9 SCC 641.
8. Hon'ble the Supreme Court has held in the matter of
Ramgopal and another v. 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
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
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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."
9. After hearing learned counsel for the parties and going
through the material available on record, this Court finds that there
appears to be substance in the submission of learned counsel for the
petitioner that pendency of the present criminal litigation would be abuse
of process of law since the chances of conviction of the petitioner are
bleak in view of the compromise so effected between the private parties.
10. The report alongwith statements of the affected parties
received from learned Court below would reveal that the aggrieved
person has genuinely effected a compromise with the petitioner and he
has no objection if the impugned FIR and consequential proceedings are
quashed.
11. Keeping in view totality of the facts and circumstances of
the case and taking into consideration the ratio of the judgments in the
cases of Gian Singh (supra), Ramgopal (supra) and Kulwinder Singh
(supra), this petition is accepted and FIR No. 142, dated 09.10.2020
(Annexure P-1), for the offences punishable under Sections 353, 186, 332
and 506 IPC, registered at Police Station Sadar, Faridkot, District
Faridkot, and all the consequential proceedings arising therefrom are
hereby quashed qua the petitioner in view of compromise, dated
PRASHANT KAPOOR
2022.09.06 18:50
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authenticity of this
order/judgment
19.10.2020 (Annexure P-2).
12. Petition stands disposed of.
(SANJAY VASHISTH)
JUDGE
September 06, 2022
Pkapoor Whether Speaking/Reasoned: YES/NO
Whether Reportable: YES/NO
PRASHANT KAPOOR
2022.09.06 18:50
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authenticity of this
order/judgment
