Saurabh Joshi And Another vs State Of Uttarakhand & Another

R.C. Khulbe, J

By way of present application, moved under Section 482 of Cr.P.C., applicants seek to entire proceedings of the Criminal Case No.141 of 2019, State vs. Saurabh Joshi and another, u/s 452, 504, 506 IPC and Sections 3(1)(x) of the Scheduled Caste & Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 "hereinafter to be referred as the 'SC/ST Act" as well as that of Special Sessions Trial No.26 of 2019, pending in the court of Sessions Judge, Pauri Garhwal.

The parties have filed a Compounding Application No. 3574 of 2019 to show that the parties have buried their differences and have settled their disputes amicably.

Learned counsel for the State opposed the compounding application.

It is contended by learned counsel for the applicant that the offences punishable under Sections 504 and 506 IPC are compoundable offences and offences punishable under Section 452 IPC and Sections 3(I)(X) of SC/ST Act are non compoundable ones.

As far as Sections 452, 504 and 506 IPC are concerned, the parties have moved the compounding application. Accepting the compromise between the parties, the offences punishable under Sections 452, 504 and 506 IPC are hereby permitted to be compounded.

Insofar as the offence under Section 3(1)(x) of SC/ST Act is concerned, the Co-ordinate Bench of this Court in Writ Petition (Criminal) No.1753 of 2018 decided on 18.09.2018, considering the fact that since the petitioners, therein, were the students who came up to build their career and also the fact that the continuation of trial might ruin their career, had permitted compounding of offence under the SC/ST Act.

Now, coming to the present case, it needs to be mentioned that petitioners and respondent no.2 are the neighbours; according to the compromise, they have settled all the disputes; the complainant do not want to prosecution the petitioners for the offences levelled against them and thus, it would be a fruitless exercise to force the parties to the litigation to face the trial.

The Apex Court has dealt with the consequence of a compromise in regard to non-compoundable offences in the case of B.S.Joshi and others vs. State of Haryana and another, (2003) 4 SCC 675 and has held as under: -

"If for the purpose of securing the ends of justice, quashing of FIR becomes necessary, Section 320 Cr.P.C. would not be a bar to the exercise of power of quashing. It is, however, a different matter depending upon the facts and circumstances of each case whether to exercise or not such a power."

It was held that thus, the High Court, in exercise of its inherent powers, can quash criminal proceedings or FIR or complaint and Section 320 of Cr.P.C. does not limit or affect the powers under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973.

The Hon'ble Supreme Court has also permitted compounding of such offences in the decision of Nikhil Merchant v. CBI and another, (2008) 9 SCC 650.

Learned counsel for the parties also drew the attention of this Court towards the ruling of Gian Singh v. State of Punjab and another, (2013) 1 SCC (Cri) 160, in which the Hon'ble Supreme Court observed as under:

"The position that emerges from the above discussion can be summarised thus: the power of the High Court in quashing a criminal proceeding or FIR or complaint in exercise of its inherent jurisdiction is distinct and different from the power given to a criminal court for compounding the offences under Section 320 of the Code. 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. In what cases power to quash the criminal proceeding or complaint or F.I.R may be exercised where the offender and victim have settled their dispute would depend on the facts and circumstances of each case and no category can be prescribed. However, before exercise of such power, the High Court must have due regard to the nature and gravity of the crime. Heinous and serious offences of mental depravity or offences like murder, rape, dacoity, etc. cannot be fittingly quashed even though the victim or victim's family and the offender have settled the dispute. Such offences are not private in nature and have serious impact on society. Similarly, any compromise between the victim and offender in relation to the offences under special statutes like Prevention of Corruption Act or the offences committed by public servants while working in that capacity etc; cannot provide for any basis for quashing criminal proceedings involving such offences. But the criminal cases having overwhelmingly and pre-dominatingly civil flavour stand on different footing for the purposes of quashing, 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. 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 bleak 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. In other words, the High Court must consider whether it would be unfair or contrary to the interest of justice to continue with the criminal proceeding or continuation of the criminal proceeding would tantamount to abuse of process of law despite settlement and compromise between the victim and wrongdoer and whether to secure the ends of justice, it is appropriate that criminal case is put to an end and if the answer to the above question(s) is in affirmative, the High Court shall be well within its jurisdiction to quash the criminal proceeding."

The instant case is squarely covered by the aforesaid judgments of the Hon'ble Supreme Court.

On the date when the case was reserved for judgment, the parties appeared before the Court being duly identified by their respective counsel, and they also signed on the order-sheet of the file to ratify the fact of compromise arrived at between them.

Accordingly, compounding application is allowed. With the result, the entire proceedings, pending between the Court below, are hereby quashed qua the petitioners on the basis of compromise arrived at between the parties.

Present C482 application and all consequential applications stands disposed of accordingly.

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