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TMI Blog2011 (11) TMI 852X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ot 'personal in nature' so as to justify quashing the pending criminal proceedings on the basis of a compromise arrived at between the first informant-complainant and the Appellants. The only question that, therefore, arises for consideration is whether the criminal proceedings in question could be quashed in the facts and circumstances of the case having regard to the settlement that the parties had arrived at. 3. Respondent-Radhika filed an oral complaint in the Police Station at Nemom in the State of Kerala, stating that she had accompanied her husband to see a site which the latter had acquired at Punjakari. Upon arrival at the site, her husband and brother Rajesh went inside the plot while she waited for them near the car parked close by. Three youngsters at this stage appeared on a motorbike, one of whom snatched the purse and mobile phone from her hands while the other hit her on the cheek and hand. She raised an alarm that brought her husband and brother rushing to the car by which time the offenders escaped towards Karumam on a motorcycle. The complainant gave the registration number of the motorbike to the police and sought action against the Appellants who wer ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e parties and perused the impugned order. Section 320 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. enlists offences that are compoundable with the permission of the Court before whom the prosecution is pending and those that can be compounded even without such permission. An offence punishable under Section 354 of the IPC is in terms of Section 320(2) of the Code compoundable at the instance of the woman against whom the offence is committed. To that extent, therefore, there is no difficulty in either quashing the proceedings or compounding the offence under Section 354, of which the Appellants are accused, having regard to the fact that the alleged victim of the offence has settled the matter with the alleged assailants. An offence punishable under Section 394 IPC is not, however, compoundable with or without the permission of the Court concerned. The question is whether the High Court could and ought to have exercised its power under Section 482 Code of Criminal Procedure. for quashing the prosecution under the said provision in the light of the compromise that the parties have arrived at. 6. Learned Counsel for the Appellants submitted that the first informant-complainant had, in the a ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... nd sentence imposed upon the accused. This Court observed that since the offence was non-compoundable, the court could not permit the same to be compounded, in the teeth of Section 320. Even so, the compromise was taken as an extenuating circumstance which the court took into consideration to reduce the punishment awarded to the Appellant to the period already undergone. To the same effect is the decision of this Court in Ishwar Singh v. State of Madhya Pradesh (2008) 15 SCC 667; where this Court said: 14. In our considered opinion, it would not be appropriate to order compounding of an offence not compoundable under the Code ignoring and keeping aside statutory provisions. In our judgment, however, limited submission of the learned Counsel for the Appellant deserves consideration that while imposing substantive sentence, the factum of compromise between the parties is indeed a relevant circumstance which the Court may keep in mind. 8. There is another line of decisions in which this Court has taken note of the compromise arrived at between the parties and quashed the prosecution in exercise of powers vested in the High Court under Section 482 Code of Criminal Procedure. In S ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... shed, the test to be applied by the court is as to whether the uncontroverted allegations as made prima facie establish the offence. It is also for the court to take into consideration any special features which appear in a particular case to consider whether it is expedient and in the interest of justice to permit a prosecution to continue. This is so on the basis that the court cannot be utilised for any oblique purpose and where in the opinion of the court chances of an ultimate conviction are bleak and, therefore, no useful purpose is likely to be served by allowing a criminal prosecution to continue, the court may while taking into consideration the special facts of a case also quash the proceeding even though it may be at a preliminary stage. 10. In B.S Joshi and Ors. v. State of Haryana (2003) 4 SCC 675, the question that fell for consideration before this Court was whether the inherent powers vested in the High Court under Section 482 Code of Criminal Procedure. could be exercised to quash non-compoundable offences. The High Court had, in that case relying upon the decision of this Court in Madhu Limaye v. The State of Maharashtra (1977) 4 SC 551, held that since offence ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ution is a luxury which the courts, grossly overburdened as they are, cannot afford and that the time so saved can be utilised in deciding more effective and meaningful litigation. This is a common sense approach to the matter based on ground of realities and bereft of the technicalities of the law. 7. We see from the impugned order that the learned Judge has confused compounding of an offence with the quashing of proceedings. The outer limit of ₹ 250 which has led to the dismissal of the application is an irrelevant factor in the later case. We, accordingly, allow the appeal and in the peculiar facts of the case direct that FIR No. 155 dated 17-11-2001 PS Kotwali, Amritsar and all proceedings connected therewith shall be deemed to be quashed. 12. To the same effect is the decision of this Court in Nikhil Merchant v. CBI 2008 (9) SCC 677 where relying upon the decision in B.S. Joshi (supra), this Court took note of the settlement arrived at between the parties and quashed the criminal proceedings for offences punishable under Sections 420, 467, 468 and 471 read with Section 120B of IPC and held that since the criminal proceedings had the overtone of a civil dispute whic ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... with which the accused stand charged are non-compoundable. The inherent powers of the High Court under Section 482 Code of Criminal Procedure. are not for that purpose controlled by Section 320 Code of Criminal Procedure. Having said so, we must hasten to add that the plenitude of the power under Section 482 Code of Criminal Procedure. by itself, makes it obligatory for the High Court to exercise the same with utmost care and caution. The width and the nature of the power itself demands that its exercise is sparing and only in cases where the High Court is, for reasons to be recorded, of the clear view that continuance of the prosecution would be nothing but an abuse of the process of law. It is neither necessary nor proper for us to enumerate the situations in which the exercise of power under Section 482 may be justified. All that we need to say is that the exercise of power must be for securing the ends of justice and only in cases where refusal to exercise that power may result in the abuse of the process of law. The High court may be justified in declining interference if it is called upon to appreciate evidence for it cannot assume the role of an appellate court while dealing ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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