The court can exercise its inherent power under Section 482 of the Cr.P.C. to quash proceedings based on a genuine compromise between private 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. 47, dated 19.03.2015 (Annexure P-1), for the offences punishable under Sections 380, 406, 120-B of IPC, at Police Station Gate Hakima, Amritsar, and all the consequential proceedings arising therefrom, on the basis of compromise dated 05.10.2019 (Annexure P-2).

2. Vide order dated 06.12.2021, 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 06.12.2021, passed by this Court, the parties have appeared before learned Judicial Magistrate Ist Class, Amritsar, and as per report dated 07.02.2022, 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 report is as follows:

(i) There are five accused persons in the present FIR;

(ii) As per the report of the Ahlmad, none of the accused has been declared as proclaimed offender;

(iii) After perusing the statements of the parties, this Court is satisfied that the compromise is genuine, out of free will of the parties and without any inducement or pressure;

(iv) As per the statement of the Investigating Officer, none of the accused persons is involved in any other FIR;

(v) As per the statement of the Investigating Officer, there is only one complainant/victim namely Makhandeep s/o Alam and there are five accused persons namely Sammi, Ali, Jattu, Buri Din and Apar Singh, all of which are parties to the compromise in question.

It is humbly submitted that Section 380 IPC was added subsequently in the present FIR.

Hence, the report is submitted.'

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 dated 05.10.2019 (Annexure P-2). 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 respondent No.2, 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