IMPORTANT POINT
The compounding of the offence under Section 138 N.I. Act is permissible without the consent of the complainant if the accused has been duly compensated, and the Court can use its inherent powers under Section 482 Cr.P.C. to meet the ends of justice.

JUDGMENT

1. The present petition has been filed by the petitioners under Section 482 of the Code of the Criminal Procedure, 1973 [Cr.P.C.] seeking setting aside the order dated 06.02.2023 passed by the learned Trial Court in Complaint Case No.5564/2022 titled "A.S. Pharma Pvt. Ltd. vs M/S Nayati Medical Pvt. Ltd. & Ors." alongwith CC No.5564/2023 pending before the learned Trial Court.

2. As per facts, the petitioners/accused persons and the respondent/ complainant were doing business. In lieu of some pending dues, the petitioners issued cheque no.17632 dated 19.01.2020 and cheque no.17633 dated 09.02.2020 drawn on 'The South Indian Bank Limited, Garhi Chowk, Ghaziabad' for an amount of Rs.3,00,000/- and Rs.3,50,000/- respectively, which returned dishonoured with remarks "Payment stopped by Drawer" vide return memo(s) dated 18.03.2020. Thereafter, the respondent sent a Legal Notice dated 29.04.2022 and upon non-receipt of a satisfactory response from the petitioners, the respondent filed a complaint under Sections 138/139/142 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 [N.I. Act] before the learned Trial Court on 07.06.2022. Summons thereon were issued vide order dated 06.08.2022. During the pendency of the said proceedings, at the outset, the petitioners showed their willingness to settle the matter, however, the complaint could not be settled since the petitioners and respondent were never ad-idem.

3. The petitioners then preferred an application under Section 320 Cr.P.C. before the learned Trial Court, which was dismissed vide the impugned order dated 06.02.2023 under challenge before this Court.

4. Learned counsel for the petitioners submitted that the petitioners are willing to settle the matter since long and are willing to pay the total cheque(s) amount along with 10% interest since the day it became due alongwith Rs.50,000/- overhead. Placing reliance upon Meters & Instruments Pvt. Ltd. & Anr. vs. Kanchan Mehta (2018) 1 SCC 560 and the judgement dated 15.12.2022 of the High Court of Himachal Pradesh in Criminal Revision No.293/2021 titled Rajinder Kumar vs Pushpa Devi, the learned counsel for the petitioners submitted that this Court under Section 482 Cr.P.C. can compound a case under the NI Act in view of Section 147 NI Act, even without the consent of the complainant.

5. Per contra, learned counsel for the respondent submitted that Rajinder Kumar (supra) is not applicable to the facts herein as it was arising of the final order unlike the present case, moreover, the respondent is willing to settle the matter only if all the cases pending inter-se them come to an end. Furthermore, a complaint case cannot be compounded without the consent of both the parties.

6. This Court has heard the learned counsel for the parties and perused all the documents on record alongwith the judgments cited by them.

7. The moot issue for consideration before this Court pertains to setting aside the impugned order whereby the learned Trial Court whilst considering the application under Section 320 Cr.P.C. noted that it could not allow the compounding application without the consent of the complainant considering Meters & Instruments Pvt. Ltd. (supra) as also RE: Expeditious Trial of Cases Under Section 138 of N.I. Act, 1881 AIR 2021 SC 1957.

8. Succinctly put, this Court is called upon to adjudicate upon a scenario wherein the petitioners as the drawee from whose account the cheques have dishonoured, after accepting their liability are willing to settle the matter by paying not only the total cheques amount but also 10% interest thereon since the day it became overdue alongwith Rs.50,000/-overhead and the respondent/ complainant as the drawer in whose name the cheques were issued, who is not willing to accept the aforesaid offer and wants to carry on with the complaint before the Court of law.

9. Prior to adverting to the facts involved, the Hon'ble Supreme Court in Meters and Instruments (supra) while dealing with a case where the High Court of Punjab