Ritu Bahri, J. - (1.) PRESENT petition has been filed under Section 482 Cr.P.C. for quashing FIR No. 246 dated 20.11.2010 under Sections 452, 324, 323, 427, 148, 149 IPC registered at Police Station Maqsudan, District Jalandhar and all subsequent proceedings arising there from on the basis of compromise.
(2.) AS per the contents of the FIR, a quarrel had taken place between the Petitioners and Respondent No. 2 due to some misunderstanding. During the pendency of the investigation, compromise has been effected between the parties. In compliance of the order dated 8.12.2010, a status report has been received from the learned Judicial Magistrate Ist Class, Jalandhar. As per the status report, statements of the parties were recorded on 24.1.2011 and 31.1.2001, which have been counter signed by their respective counsel and both the parties have admitted the compromise dated 30.11.2010 effected between them. Jaswinder Singh son of Shingara Singh got recorded his statement to the effect that he has no objection if the FIR against the Petitioner is quashed.
(3.) BROAD guidelines have been laid down by the Full Bench of this Court in the case of Kulwinder Singh and Ors. v. State of Punjab and Anr., 2007(3) RCR(cri) 1052 for quashing the prosecution when parties entered into compromise. The Full Bench has observed that this power of quashing is not confined to matrimonial disputes alone. The relevant portion of the judgment reads as under: 26. In Mrs. Shakuntala Sawhney v. Mrs. Kaushalya Sawhney and Ors. : (1980)1 SCC 63, Hon'ble Krishna Iyer, J. aptly summoned up the essence of compromise in the following words: The finest hour of justice arrived propitiously when parties, despite falling apart, bury the hatchet and weave a sense of fellowship of reunion. 27. 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. No embargo, be in the shape of Section 320(9) if the Cr.P.C., or any other such curtailment, can whittle down the power under Section 482 of the Cr.P.C. 28. The compromise, in a modern society, is the sine qua non of harmony and orderly behaviour. It is the soul of justice and if the power under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure is used to enhance such a compromise which, in turn, enhances the social amity and reduces friction, then it truly is finest hour of justice". Disputes which have their genesis in a matrimonial discord, landlord -tenant matters, commercial transactions and other such matters can safely be dealt with by the Court by exercising its powers under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure in the event of a compromise, but this is not to say that the power is limited to such cases. There can never be any such rigid rule to prescribe the exercise of such power, especially in the absence of any premonitions to forecast and predict eventualities which the cause of justice may throw up during the course of a litigation.;