JUDGMENT

T.S. THAKUR, J.

1. Leave granted. This appeal arises out of an order passed by the High Court of Kerala at Ernakulam, whereby Criminal M.C. no. 3715 of 2010 filed under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, with a prayer for quashing criminal proceedings in FIR No.6/2010 alleging commission of offences punishable under Sections 354 and 394 of the IPC, has been dismissed. The High Court has taken the view that the offences with which the appellants stand charged, are not 'personal in nature' so as to justify quashing the pending criminal proceedings on the basis of a compromise arrived at between the first informant-complainant and the appellants. The only question that, therefore, arises for consideration is whether the criminal proceedings in question could be quashed in the facts and circumstances of the case having regard to the settlement that the parties had arrived at.

2. Respondent-Radhika filed an oral complaint in the Police Station at Nemom in the State of Kerala, stating that she had accompanied her husband to see a site which the latter had acquired at Punjakari. Upon arrival at the site, her husband and brother Rajesh went inside the plot while sh