This is a case digest on Chandigarh High Court FIR Quashing in case of a PO (Proclaimed Offender) wherein compromise was arrived between the parties. Moreover the offences listed were not of heinous nature. Thus Punjab Haryana High Court exercised its discretion under Section 482 of CRPC to quash the FIR in the interest of justice.
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QUASHING OF FIR BY HIGH COURT UNDER SECTION 482 OF CRPC
High Court of Punjab and Haryana, at Chandigarh
Hon’ble Mr. Justice Raj Mohan Singh
Petitioner-
Kulwinder Singh @ Ruja
Represented by- Advocate Mr. Benti Kaur
v/s
Respondent-
State of Punjab and another
Represented by- Mr. J.S. Ghumman, DAG Punjab
Advocate Mr. G.S. Madaan for complainant/ respondent no. 2
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Brief Facts of the Case-
- This petition was made under Section 482 Cr.P.C. for quashing of FIR No.131 dated 17-08-2013 registered under Section 323, 324, 506, 148, 149 IPC at Police Station City Moga, District Moga. The FIR was registered Dharminder Singh, Kulwinder Singh and some unknown persons but during investigation only Dharminder Singh and Kulwinder Singh were found involved in the case. Dharminder was acquitted by the Trial Court but Kulwinder was declared as proclaimed offender. The petitioner/ Kulwinder was granted anticipatory bail but he is facing trail. Also Read- Punjab and Haryana HC declines to quash FIR lodged for ‘uploading videos of Army assets’
- As per the report by Chief Judicial Magistrate, Moga Jagtar Singh/complainant was present and he is signatory to the compromise dated 21-01-2019 but he went to abroad at the time of making statement in the Court so he executed a special power of attorney 21-01-2019 in the name of Baljinder Singh. Chief judicial Magistrate, Moga has recorded the statement of Kulwinder Singh and Baljinder Singh in the context of genuineness of the compromise in question. Also Read- Punjab: HC quashes FIR against Chandigarh resident booked for non-verification of Tenants
- On the statement of the parties the Court recorded its satisfaction and submitted that by the statement of Kulwinder Singh and Baljinder Singh recorded by the Court, a compromise has been affected between the parties which is genuine, voluntary, and without any coercion and undue influence. The accused Kulwinder Singh is on bail.
- The Court is of the opinion that it was a valid compromise between the parties but power of the High Court under Section 482 CrPC for quashing criminal prosecution on merit and on the basis of compromise between parties is remained in question.
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- The Hon’ble Apex Court after due consideration of judgments in Madhu Limaye vs. State of Maharashtra, Bhajan Lal vs. State of Haryana and others, and State of Karnataka vs. L. Muniswamy and others has summed up the controversy in State through Special Cell, New Delhi vs. Navjot Sandhu @ Afshan Guru and others. The legal position summed up in the said judgment is in the following manner:- Also read- High court notice to Punjab and CBI on dera follower’s plea
- Under Article 277 of India Constitution High Court has power of superintendence over all the tribunals and courts throughout the territory in its jurisdiction, its supervisory jurisdiction extends to keeping the subordinate tribunals within the limits of their authority and to seeing that they obey the law. Where the statute bans the exercise of revisional power it would require very exceptional circumstance to warrant interference under this Article since the power of superintendence was not meant to circumvent statutory law.
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Section 482 of CrPC starts with the word ‘Nothing in this Code’, so High Court can exercised its jurisdiction under Section 482 CrPC even when there is bar under Section 397 of CrPC. But the inherent power of the High Court can be exercised only when there is an abuse of the process of Court and where interference is absolutely necessary for securing the end of justice.
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Generally this jurisdiction is exercised where criminal proceedings are required to be quashed because there are initiated illegally, vexatiously or without jurisdiction.Most of the cases set out herein fall in this category. It must be remembered that the inherent powers is not to be resorted to if there is a specific provision in the Code or any other enactment for redress of the grievance of the aggrieved party.
This power should not be exercised against an express bar of law engrafted in any other provision of the Criminal Procedure Code. This power cannot be exercised as against an express bar in some other enactment.
- The full Bench in this case considered the scope of Section 482 CrPC and held that the High Court has power to quash prosecution to prevent the abuse of process of law and these power are unlimited. There is no statutory bar on this inherent power if High Court under Section 482 of CrPC but it has to be exercised with utmost care and caution. In exercise of this power the criminal proceedings for heinous crime are not to be quashed, proceedings can only be quashed of civil profile arising out of commercial, financial, civil or matrimonial nature. In a way dispute may involve wrong which is basically private or personal in nature and the parties have redressed the same by entering into compromise. In case of Gian Singh v. State of Punjab and another, the Supreme Court considered necessary imports of all previous president and observed that-
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The High Court ha inherent power to quash criminal proceedings, FIR or complaint to secure the ends of justice without no statutory limitation and it is different from the power given to the criminal courts for compounding offences under Section 320 of CrPC. Before exercising such power the High Court must have due regard to the nature and gravity of the crime, heinous offences like murder, rape, dacoity etc. cannot be quashed even if the victim or his family and the offended have settled the dispute because such crime are not private in nature and have a serious impact on the society. Also the offences done by public servant related to statutes like Prevention of Corruption Act cannot be quashed if any compromise made between the victim and offender.
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But the criminal cases having pre-dominatingly civil flavor, particularly the offences arising from commercial, financial, mercantile, civil, partnership or such like transactions or the offences 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.
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In this category of cases, High Court may quash criminal proceedings if in its view, because of the compromise between the offender and victim, the possibility of conviction is remote and continuation of criminal case would put 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.
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Judgement-
The Court held that the compromise will enable both the parties to live in peace. The offence is not heinous in nature nor does it involve offence covered under Prevention of Corruption Act. Chances of conviction are remote therefore the continuation of proceedings would not be in the interest of both of the parties. It would also result in unnecessary vagaries of criminal trial. Therefore, the Court has quashed the FIR No.131 registered of 17.08.2013 under Section 323, 324, 506, 148, 149 of IPC at Police Station City Moga, District Moga with arisen subsequent proceedings.
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