Tarwinder Singh & Ors. v. Smt. Gian Kaur & Anr.

CORAM : HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE RAKESH KUMAR GARG Present: Mr. S.K.S.Bedi, Advocate, for the petitioners. Mr. S.K.Verma, Advocate, for the complainant. * * * RAKESH KUMAR GARG, J (ORAL) This is a petition for quashing of FIR No.299 dated

14.08.1999, registered at Police Station Kotwali, Patiala, on the basis of compromise (Anneuxre P-4). It has been averred in the said compromise that the litigation between both the parties have arisen out of some misunderstanding, as a result of which the FIR in question was got registered by respondent No.1- Smt. Gian Kaur. However, at the intervention of respected persons of society and relatives of both the parties now all the disputes have resolved and both the parties want to maintain healthy relations between the children of both the parties. It has further been averred that respondent No.1 shall move an application for withdrawal of the above said criminal case and also shall make statement for the cancellation of the said FIR. Respondent No.1-Gian Kaur has further filed an affidavit in support of the said compromise of the parties to the FIR in Crl. Misc. No.M-34495 of 2011 (O&M) 2 question. The parties are also present in the Court and have been duly identified by their respective counsels. Before this Court also, the parties have supported the compromise and have prayed that the FIR in question be quashed. It has been specifically stated that the dispute is arisen due to misunderstanding between the petitioner No.2 and respondent No.1. who are daughter-in-law and mother-in- law respectively and the compromise has been effected to maintain healthy relationship between the parties. It is not in dispute that an FIR No.209/ 1998 dated

29.05.1998, registered at Police Station C.R. Park, District South Delhi, on the similar facts has already been quashed by the High Court of Delhi, vide judgment dated 5.12.2011. A Full Bench of this Court in Kulwinder Singh and others v. State of Punjab and another, 2007(3) RCR (Criminal) 1052 has held that this Court, in appropriate cases, while exercising powers under Section 482 Cr.P.C., may quash an FIR disclosing the commission of non-compoundable offences. The relevant paras reads thus:- “28. 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 “finesh 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 power under Section 482 of the Cr.P.C. in the event Crl. Misc. No.M-34495 of 2011 (O&M) 3 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.

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.”