Jiwan Singh and anr. vs State of Punjab

S.S. Dewan, J.—This is a petition under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure for quashing the First Information Report No. 29 of 1988 registered against the petitioners at Police Station, Jagraon, District Ludhiana under Sections 363 and 366, Indian Penal Code. No chargesheet or challan has been submitted against the petitioners so far in Court and the petitioners have come up for quashing the First Information Report. Mr. S. K. Syal, learned Assistant Advocate General has raised a preliminary objection. He has contended that in exercise of the powers under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, this Court cannot quash the First Information Report. In support of this plea, he has relied on a decision of the Supreme Court in Kurukshetra University v. The State of Haryana, AIR. 1977 S.C. 2229, wherein it has been held as under :

"Inherent powers do not confer any arbitrary jurisdiction on the High Court to act according to whim or caprice. That statutory power has to be exercised sparingly, with circumspection in the rarest of rare case. Thus, the High Court in exercise of inherent powers under section 482, Criminal Procedure Code, cannot quash first information report more so when the police had not even commenced the investigation and no proceeding at all is pending in any Court in pursuance of the said FIR".

It is thus manifest from the above that this Court cannot in exercise of the extraordinary powers quash the First Information Report. The powers under this provision can be exercised only when proceeding are launched in a Court of law. The allegation made against the petitioners in the F.I.R. is that Daljit Kaur alias Rubal Kumari was a minor and she had been kidnapped by Jiwan Singh accused. A report under Section 178 of the Code of Criminal Procedure against the petitioners is likely to be filed within a period of one month or so provided the petitioners are arrected by the police. Before the challan is presented in the Court, full picture relating to the evidence against the petitioners cannot be known. By taking into consideration all these circumstances, no case for quashing the First Information Report is made out. The petition is accordingly dismissed.