The main legal point established in the judgment is the court's power to quash criminal proceedings based on a genuine compromise between the parties, in order to prevent abuse of process of law and secure the ends of justice.

JUDGMENT

Sanjay Vashisth, J. - The present petition under Section 482, Cr.P.C., has been filed by Beant Singh, for quashing of FIR No. 142, dated 09.10.2020 (Annexure P-1), for the offences punishable under Sections 353, 186, 332 and 506 IPC, registered at Police Station Sadar, Faridkot, District Faridkot, and all the consequential proceedings arising therefrom, on the basis of compromise dated 19.10.2020 (Annexure P-2).

2. Vide order dated 02.11.2020, 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 02.11.2020, passed by this Court, the parties have appeared before learned Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate, Faridkot, and as per report dated 02.12.2020, 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:-

' From the statement of the parties, named above, and the investigating officer SI Bhupinder Singh No. 39/BTRT, as recorded on 01.12.2020, the point-wise information is furnished as under:-

(i) There is only one person, namely Beant Singh son of Resham Singh, arrayed as accused in the FIR.

(ii) None has been declared as proclaimed offender/absconder in the case.

(iii) Matter is at the stage of investigation and challan is yet to be presented in the Court.

(iv) From the statement of the complainant Gurdas Singh (Home Guard) son of Inder Singh, it appears that he has voluntary, without any coercion or undue influence, compromised the matter with the accused Beant Singh son of Resham Singh and their compromise appears to be genuine."

4. Learned counsel for the petitioner 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 19.10.2020 (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. Kaiishalya 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 a