In a criminal case where the victim and the accused person have arrived at a compromise and there are no other witnesses to the alleged crime, there is no chance of a conviction happening. In such cases, the first information report may be quashed as there is no point in the criminal trial being conducted. This was held by a single member bench of the High Court of Jharkhand consisting of Justice Sanjay Kumar Dwivedi in the case of Krishna Ballam Tiwary v The State of Jharkhand [Cr. M.P. No. 01of 2021] on 2nd August 2021.
As per the informant’s report, the petitioner, Krishna Ballam Tiwary verbally abused the informant using his caste and also slapped, punched and threw chairs at him. A first information report was registered against the petitioner under Sections 341, 323, 504 and 506 of the Indian Penal Code for wrongful restraint, causing hurt, provocation and criminal intimidation as well as Section 3(1)(d) of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989 for garlanding with footwear and nakedly parading a member of an SC/ST Community. The present petition has been filed before the court by the petitioner for the quashing of the entire criminal proceedings as well as the first information report of the SC/ST Case No. 09 of 2019.
Without going into the merits of the allegations levelled against the petitioner, the petitioner’s counsel brought to the notice of the court that a compromise had been reached between the informant who is the opposite party No. 2 in this case and the petitioner. The informant’s counsel submitted that this agreement was also supported by the informant. The case of Gyan Singh v State of Punjab [2013 1 SCC Cr.160] was cited where the court held that an FIR could be quashed in cases where there was no chance of the accused person being convicted. The High Court noted that in the immediate case, since no one else had witnessed the alleged crimes of the petitioner and a compromise has been reached between the petitioner and the informant, there was no chance of the petitioner being convicted if the criminal trial had to carry on.
Justice Sanjay Kumar Dwivedi declared that “there is no chance of conviction in view of the further development as it has been considered by the Hon’ble Supreme Court in the cases stated supra. Accordingly, the entire criminal proceeding as well as the F.I.R of Palamau SC/ST P.S.Case No.09 of 2019 registered for the offence punishable under sections 341,323,504 and 506 of the Indian Penal Code and section 3(1)(d) of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, pending in the court of learned Special Judge, SC/ST Act, Palamau at Daltonganj is quashed and set aside.”
