ORDER :

Leave granted.

High Court of Allahabad has declined to exercise its powers under Section 482 Cr.P.C. to quash criminal proceedings in Case No. 9171 of 2009 titled State of U.P. and Ors. v. M.L. Gupta & Ors. for offences punishable under Sections 498-A, 323, 504, 506 IPC and Section 3/4 of the Dowry Prohibition Act arising out of Crime Case No. 2689 of 2009 registered at police station, Nawabad, District Jhansi. The appellants who happen to be the parents in law of complainant-Ms. Neha Gupta-respondent No. 2 in these proceedings have assailed the said order in the present appeal.

2. It is in our view unnecessary to recapitulate the entire factual backdrop in which the controversy arises. All that need be mentioned is that appellant's son-Mayank Gupta married the complainant-respondent No. 2 on 29.06.2005 at Jhansi. The relationship between the parties appears to have remained embittered from the very beginning on account of the alleged harassment of the respondent by the appellants and their son for dowry resulting in multiple legal proceedings between the parties against each other in different courts and jurisdictions. While Mr. Mayank Kumar Gupta, the husband who is settled in the USA appears to have filed a divorce petition in a Court in the US, Ms. Neha Gupta, the wife filed a similar petition seeking divorce on the ground of cruelty before the Family Court at Jhansi. It is a common ground that in both cases so filed ex-parte decrees for dissolution of marriage between the parties have been passed. Be that as it may, the fact remains that the parties have for good parted company and neither of them has any regret about the same.

3. What is important is that the bitterness in the relationship between the parties was not limited only to civil litigation between them. Even the criminal law was set in motion with the filing of an FIR registered as Crime Case No. 2689 of 2007 at Navabad police station District Jhansi, U.P. for offences punishable under Sections 498A, 324, 504, 505 IPC and Section 3/4 of the Dowry Prohibition Act. In her complaint filed before the said police station, respondent-wife accused not only the husband Mayank Gupta but also his parents, the appellants before us of harassing her for dowry and for other acts of cruelty. The police case eventually culminated in the filing of a charge-sheet against the appellants before the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Jhansi who has taken cognizance and summoned the appellants as also Mayank Gupta, their son as accused persons.

4. Criminal Misc. Application No. 20607 of 2012 was in the above backdrop filed before the High Court of Judicature at Allahabad under Section 482, Cr.P.C. for quashing the criminal proceedings launched against the appellants. A discharge application filed by the appellants before the Court at Jhansi was also rejected by the said court by an order dated 07.05.2012 which too came under challenge before the High Court. The High Court has upon consideration declined to interfere with the on-going proceedings hence the present appeal.

5. When the matter came up before us on 25.04.2014, learned counsel for the parties were not averse to exploring the possibility of an amicable settlement with the help of the Mediation Centre in the Supreme Court. We had accordingly directed the parties to the Mediation Centre in the Supreme Court to explore the possibility of a settlement. The Mediation Centre submitted a report according to which efforts to bring about a settlement had failed That is how the matter came up before us on 01.09.2014 and 16.09.2014 when the parties once again started talking of a possible agreed solution in the nature of a full and final settlement that would satisfy the claim made by the wife towards the return of her streedhan and other articles and put an end to the criminal proceedings and resultant acrimony between the parties. Our attention was in that connection drawn to a ex-parte judgment and decree passed in Civil Petition No. 29