The High Court, in the exercise of its inherent power, can quash criminal proceedings or FIR or complaint and Section 320 of Cr.P.C. does not limit or affect the powers under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973. A single Judge Bench comprising Hon’ble Justice R.C. Khulbe, in the case of Muntijeer and others Vs. State of Uttarakhand and others (Crl. Misc. Application (C-482) No.929 of 2021), dealt with an issue where the petitioner filed the present application seeking to quash the entire proceedings of Crl. Case No. 918 of 2020, State v. Muntijeer and another, pending in the Court of Judicial Magistrate 1st Haridwar.
In the present case, the parties had filed the compounding application to show that they have settled their dispute amicably. However, the counsel for the state opposed the compounding application. The counsel for applicants contended that the offences punishable under Sections 323, 504, 506, 354 IPC were compoundable offences whereas under Sections 147, 148, 452 IPC were non-compoundable offences.
Further, the Apex Court had dealt with the consequence of a compromise in regard to non-compoundable offences in the case of B.S.Joshi and others vs. the State of Haryana and another, (2003) 4 SCC 675 and has held- “If for the purpose of securing the ends of justice, quashing of FIR becomes necessary, Section 320 Cr.P.C. would not be a bar to the exercise of a power of quashing.” Moreover, the parties also drew the attention of this Court towards the citation of Gian Singh v. the State of Punjab and another, (2013) 1 SCC (Cri) 160, in which Hon’ble Supreme Court observed that- “the High Court shall be well within its jurisdiction to quash the criminal proceeding”. The court observed that the instant case was fairly covered by the above ruling of the Hon’ble Supreme Court. Thereby the compounding application was allowed and hence the pending proceeding was quashed.
