All these three criminal miscellaneous petitions, though involve different facts and arises out of different first information reports, but substantially raise a common question of law. They have been therefore clubbed together for the purpose of decision and are being decided by this common judgment.

2. In all these three petitions, the petitioners are either husband or his relatives, who have been made accused in the first information reports for offences under Sections 498A and 406 IPC lodged at the instance of complainant-respondent-wife. The respondents-wives in all these three petitions, have compromised the matters and filed the compromise deed before the court concerned and also obtained decree of divorce by mutual consent where they agreed to get the proceedings in criminal cases lodged at their instances dropped/quashed in terms of the compromise deed. But they have later on changed their mind and decided to pursue such criminal matters. It is precisely for this reason that all these petitions have been filed on behalf of accused-petitioners for quashment of the proceedings in respective criminal cases. It is matter of coincidence that all these matters happened to