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2023 Supreme(P&H) 2392

IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH
JASJIT SINGH BEDI, J.
Ashish Khod. – Petitioner
Versus
State of Haryana & Anr. – Respondents
CRM-M-17791 of 2023
Decided On : 13-04-2023

Advocates Appeared:
Mr. Raman Chawla, Advocate; For the Petitioner
For the Respondent:Mr. Kanwar Sanjiv Kumar, Assistant Advocate General, Haryana.

Headnote:(A) Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 - Section 482 - Indian Penal Code, 1860 - Section 174A - Quashing of FIR and proceedings - Petitioner issued a cheque for Rs. 9,00,000, which was dishonoured leading to a complaint under Section 138 of Negotiable Instruments Act. FIR under Section 174A was registered after the petitioner was declared a proclaimed person. The main complaint was subsequently withdrawn due to mutual settlement - Court finds continuation of proceedings would be an abuse of process of law - Citing similar judgments, petition is allowed and FIR quashed. (Paras 1, 2, 7, 13)

(B) Legal principles - A proclaimed offender's declaration is not to persist if the main proceedings have been settled or withdrawn. (Paras 7, 10)

(C) Judicial observations - Proceeding under Section 174A IPC becomes redundant once the main case is dismissed or withdrawn. (Paras 10, 12)

Table of Content
1. details on complaint and subsequent fir (Para 1 , 2 , 3)
2. arguments regarding status as proclaimed person (Para 4 , 5)
3. court's review of case status (Para 6 , 7)
4. precedent on fir and settled disputes (Para 8 , 9)
5. independent nature of section 174a ipc (Para 10 , 11)
6. final ruling and quashing of proceedings (Para 12 , 13)

JUDGMENT

Jasjit Singh Bedi, J. (Oral)

This is a petition under Section 482 of Cr.P.C. for quashing of FIR No.768 dated 04.09.2022 (Annexure P-1) under Section 174A IPC registered at P.S. Azad Nagar, Hisar, District Hisar, Haryana as well as subsequent proceedings arising out of the FIR as well as order dated 16.08.2022 (Annexure P-2) passed by the Judicial Magistrate Ist Class, Hisar whereby petitioner has been declared a proclaimed person in complaint case under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments, 1881 titled as Pardeep Kumar v. Ashish Khod .

2. The brief facts of the case are that in discharge of his legal liability, the petitioner/accused issued a cheque for amount of Rs.9,00,000/- dated 09.10.2018 in favour of respondent No.2-complainanat. The said cheque came to be dishonoured. Pursuant thereto, as no payment was made in lieu of the dishonoured cheque, a complaint under section 138 of Negotiable Instruments Act came to be instituted against the petitioner/accused and he was summoned to face trial. Subsequently, he was declared a proclaimed person vide order dated 16.08.2022 (Annexure P-2) Pursuant to the said order, FIR No.768 dated 04.09.2022 (Annexure P-1) came to be registered under Section 174A of IPC at Police Station Azad Nagar, Hisar, District Hisar against him.

3. Thereafter, a compromise was effected between the parties and the complaint was ordered to be dismissed as withdrawn in terms of the order dated 09.02.2023 (Annexure P-3). In view of the dismissal of the complaint under section 138 of Negotiable Instruments Act on the basis of the compromise, the present petition has been filed for quashing of the aforesaid order dated 16.08.2022 (Annexure P-2) passed by the Judicial Magistrate Ist Class, Hisar and the consequential FIR (Annexure P-1).

4. The learned counsel for the petitioner/accused submits that he had wrongly been declared a proclaimed person and on learning about the same, the petitioner compromised the matter with the complainant. Thereafter, on 09.02.2023, the GPA of the complainant in the Trial Court got recorded his statement that as per his instructions, the complainant did not want to proceed further with the present complaint and wanted to withdraw the same. Based on the said statement, the complaint was ordered to be dismissed as withdrawn on 09.02.2023 (P-3).

5. The learned State counsel has opposed the present petition and has submitted that the petitioner has rightly been declared a proclaimed offender.

6. This Court has heard the learned counsel for the parties and has perused the paper-book.

7. From the above-said facts and circumstances, it is apparent that the present FIR was registered in view of the fact that the petitioner was declared as a proclaimed person in the proceeding under the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881. The impugned complaint itself has been withdrawn.

8. A co-ordinate Bench of this Court in CRM-M-43813-2018 titled as "Baldev Chand Bansal v. State of Haryana and another", decided on 29.01.2019 has held as under:-

    "Prayer in this petition is for quashing of FIR No.64 dated 15.02.2017 filed under Section 174A of the Indian Penal Code registered at Police Station Sector-5, Panchkula and all other subsequent proceedings arising thereof as well as order dated 24.10.2016 passed by the trial Court vide which a direction was issued to register the aforesaid FIR.

    xxx xxx xxx

    Learned counsel for the petitioner has relied upon the decisions rendered by this Court in "Vikas Sharma v. Gurpreet Singh Kohli and another (supra), 2017, (3) L.A.R.584, Microqual Techno Limited and others v. State of Haryana and another, 2015 (32) RCR (C

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