JUDGMENT :

Anil Kshetarpal, J.

CRM-16749/2019

1. Application is allowed. Additional affidavit of respondent No. 2 is taken on record.

Main case

2. At the outset, it must be noticed that there is growing tendency amongst the people attempting to give the cloak of a criminal offence to the disputes which are essentially civil in nature. In such circumstances, the courts dealing with criminal cases are under an additional responsibility to ensure that proceedings pending before it, are not permitted to be used for settling scores or to pressurise the parties to settle civil disputes. Facts of this case demonstrate one such attempt.

3. The petitioner has filed the present petition under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure for quashing of criminal complaint dated 04.06.2013 (Annexure P-6) under Section 420 of the Indian Penal Code and order of summoning dated 21.04.2016.

4. Some facts are required to be noticed. Kundan Singh @ Surjit Singh Banga and his sister Harbhajan Kaur @ Jagdeep Kaur Sharma were owners of land situated in village Mukh Ladhana, Hadbast No. 284 Hoshiarpur. Smt. Harbhajan Kaur authorised his brother Kundan Singh through power of attorney to deal with the property.