The main legal point established in the judgment is that the court has the inherent power to quash criminal proceedings based on a compromise between the parties to prevent abuse of process of law and secure the ends of justice.

JUDGMENT

Sanjay Vashisth, J. (Oral) - The present petition under Section 482, Cr.P.C., has been filed by the petitioners, for quashing of FIR No. 272, dated 06.09.2018 (Annexure P-1), for the offences punishable under Sections 147, 148, 323, 341, 379-B of IPC (deleted later on) and Section 506 of IPC (added later on), at Police Station Furrukh Nagar, District Gurugram, and final report under Section 173 Cr.PC, dated 19.09.2018 (Annexure P-2) under Sections 147, 148, 323, 341, 325 & 506 of IPC, and all the consequential proceedings arising therefrom, on the basis of compromise/MoU dated 20.11.2021 (Annexure P-3).

2. Vide order dated 21.12.2021, the affected parties were directed to appear before the learned trial Court/Illaqa Magistrate, for getting their respective statements recorded with regard to the compromise. The trial Court/Illaqa Magistrate was to submit a report in this regard giving certain details as enumerated in the said order.

3. Pursuant to the order dated 21.12.2021, passed by this Court, the parties have appeared before learned Judicial Magistrate Ist Class, Pataudi, and as per report dated 10.01.2022, submitted to this Court, both the parties have got recorded their respective statements in Court. The operative part of the report received from learned Court below is as under:-

'The point-wise report as sought is submitted as under:-

1. Yes, after completing of investigation, challan under Section 173 Cr.PC has been filed.

2. Yes, charges have been framed against the accused persons on 05.04.2019.

3. Yes, prosecution evidence has commenced.'

4. Learned counsel for the petitioners urged that due to intervention of the respectable and elderly people of the society, the matter has been resolved and private parties have effected a compromise/affidavit dated 20.11.2021 (Annexure P-3). At present, there remains no dispute amongst the private parties. He further submits that in view of the compromise so effected between the private parties, pendency of the impugned FIR and consequential proceedings emanating therefrom would be sheer abuse of the process of law.

5. Learned State counsel as also learned counsel for respondents No.2 & 3, after going through the statements and the report received from learned Court below, very fairly admit that the private parties have resolved their dispute and effected a compromise and that they have no objection if the impugned FIR and all the consequential proceedings are quashed on the basis of the compromise.

6. The Full Bench of this Court in the matter of Kulwinder Singh and others v. State of Punjab and another, 2007 (3) RCR (Criminal) 1052, has observed as under:

'(28) To conclude, it can safely be said that there can never be any hard and fast category which can be prescribed to enable the Court to exercise its power under Section 482 of the Cr.P.C. The only principle that can be laid down is the one which has been incorporated in the Section itself, i.e., "to prevent abuse of the process of any Court" or "to secure the ends of justice'.

(29) In Mrs. Shakuntala Sawhney v. Mrs. Kaushalya Sawhney and others, Hon'ble Krishna Iyer, J. aptly summoned up the essence of compromise in the following words:

'The finest hour of justice arrives propitiously when parties, despite falling apart, bury the hatchet and weave a sense of fellowship of reunion.'

(30) The power to do complete justice is the very essence of every judicial justice dispensation system. It cannot be diluted by distorted perceptions and is not a slave to anything, except to the caution and circumspection, the standards of which the Court sets before it, in exercise of such plenary and unfettered power inherently vested in it while donning the cloak of compassion to achieve the ends of justice.

(31) No embargo, be in the shape of Section 320(9) of the Cr.P.C., or any other such curtailment, can whittle down the power under Section 482 of the Cr.P.C.

(32) The compromise, in a modern society, is the sine qua non of harmony and orderly be