Court No. - 65
Case :- APPLICATION U/S 482 No. - 21521 of 2019 Applicant :- Nanhe @ Govind Ram And 2 Others Opposite Party :- State Of U.P. And Another Counsel for Applicant :- Vipul Kumar Dubey Counsel for Opposite Party :- G.A.,Manoj Kumar Dubey
Hon'ble Karuna Nand Bajpayee,J.
In compliance of the order dated 29.5.2019, the victim Mamta is present before the Court along with her counsel.
This application u/s 482 Cr.P.C. has been filed with the prayer to quash the entire proceedings as well as charge sheet dated 17.7.2018 and the cognizance order dated 8.10.2018 passed in Criminal Case No. 2159 of 2018, State vs. Nanhe@Govind Ram and others, arising out of Case Crime No. 0133 of 2018, under Sections 323, 308, 504 I.P.C., P.S.- Patwai, District- Rampur, pending in the court of Judicial Magistrate, Rampur.
Sri Manoj Kumar Dubey, Advocate has filed affidavit sworn by the opposite party no. 2 Bharat Singh and by the victim Mamta along with vakalanama today in Court, which has been taken on record.
Heard applicants' counsel, learned counsel for opposite party no.2 and learned A.G.A. Perused the record.
The submission of applicants' counsel is that through good offices of certain well-meaning persons the parties have amicably settled the dispute among themselves and have mutually compromised in the matter. According to the counsel there is no dispute left out any more in between the parties and they wish no more litigation in between them. Attention was drawn to the contents of the affidavit which has been jointly sworn by the opposite party no. 2 Bharat Singh as well as the victim Mamta in which the factum of compromise in between the parties has been affirmed in para-5. It has also been averred in the affidavit that an application was also moved by the opposite party no. 2/first informant in the court below whereby the applicants were exonerated completely. It was also averred that by way of filing a notary affidavits which were annexure nos. 7 and 8 to the affidavit accompanying this application, the first informant and the victim Mamta have completely denied the allegations that were made against the applicants and according to their contents, the applicants were nominated at the instigation of some other persons as a result of which the F.I.R. was lodged against them. Submission is that in view of the inter se compromise that appears to have taken place outside the court there is absolutely a little likelihood of any evidence to be produced against the applicants and in view of complete disinclination of the witness to pursue the matter against the applicants the fate of the case is a foregone conclusion and continuation of the trial in such circumstances will result in nothing except an abuse of court's process as the dispute in question is of a very private nature and has hardly any social ramifications. Submission therefore is that in the wake of the inter-se compromise arrived at in between the parties, the impugned proceedings ought to be quashed.
Counsel for the opposite party no. 2 Sri Manoj Kumar Dubey, who is present in the Court, has also reiterated the submissions made on behalf of the applicants and it has been specifically stated by him that he has the instruction not to oppose this application and the opposite party no. 2 and the victim have no objection if the impugned proceedings pending against the applicants are quashed.
Before proceeding any further it shall be apt to make a brief reference to the following cases :
1. B.S. Joshi and others Vs. State of Haryana and another (2003)4 SCC 675
2. Nikhil Merchant Vs. Central Bureau of Investigation[2008)9 SCC 677]
3. Manoj Sharma Vs. State and others ( 2008) 16 SCC 1,
4. Gian Singh Vs. State of Punjab (2012) 10 SCC 303
5. Narindra Singh and others Vs. State of Punjab (2014) 6 SCC 466.
Reference may also be made to the decision given by this Court in Shaifullah and others Vs. State of U.P. And another [2013 (83) ACC 278]. in which the law expounded by the Apex court in the aforesaid cases has been expatiated in detail.
A perusal of the case law referred herein above makes it very clear that the Hon'ble Supreme Court has lent its judicial countenance to the exercise of inherent jurisdiction in such matters so that the abuse of the court's process may be averted. Even in the cases which involved non compoundable offences their quashing has been approved by the Apex Court if the nature of the offence is such which does not have grave and wider social ramifications and where the dispute is more or less confined between the litigating parties. A criminal litigation emanating from matrimonial dispute has been found to be the proceedings of the same class where the inherent jurisdiction of this court may be suitably exercised if the parties inter-se have mutually decided to bury the hatchet and settle the matter amicably in between them. There are many other litigations which may also fall in the same class even though they do not arise out of matrimonial disputes. Several disputes which are quintessentially of civil nature and other criminal litigations which do not have grave and deleterious social fall-outs may also be settled between the parties. In such matters also when parties approached the court jointly with the prayer to put an end to the criminal litigations in which they had formerly locked their horns, or if the record or the mediation centre's report indicates a rapprochement in between the parties, the Court in the wider public interest may suitably exercise its power and terminate the pending proceedings. Such positive exercise of the inherent jurisdiction can also find its vindication in a more pragmatic reason. When the complainant of a case or the victim of the offence itself expresses its resolve not to give evidence against the accused in the back drop of the compromise between the parties inter-se or if the fact of inter-se compromise in between the parties is apparent on the face of record, and they are still called upon to depose in the court, they in all probability, go back on their words and resile from their previous statements, the truthfulness of which is best known only to themselves. They are in such circumstances very likely to eat their words and perjure themselves. The solemn proceedings of the court often get reduced to a sham exercise and farce in such circumstances. The proceedings can hardly be taken to their logical culmination and in such circumstances, the prospect of the conviction gets lost. In all probability, the trial becomes a futile exercise in vain and the precious time of court is attended with nothing except a cruel wastage. Of course, there are crimes which are the offences against the State and the inter-se compromise between the litigants cannot be countenanced with and the court despite the rapprochement arrived at in between the parties, would still not like to terminate the prosecution of the culprits. There are crimes of very grave nature entailing far reaching deleterious ramifications against the society. In those matters, the courts do not encourage either mediation or a compromise through negotiation and even the Apex Court has carved out exceptions and did not approve the quashing of non-compoundable offences regardless of their gravity. The Courts have to be discreet and circumspect and must see whether the exercise of inherent jurisdiction is indeed serving the ends of justice or to the contrary defeating the same.
In the wake of the compromise arrived at between the parties inter-se if the proceedings of lower court are still allowed to go on, it is apparent that the same shall be a sheer abuse of the court's process. The dockets of the pending cases are already bursting on their seams and the lower Courts must be allowed to engage themselves in more fruitful judicial exercise and not be saddled with matters like the one at hand whose fate is already sealed.
In the aforesaid circumstances of the case, it is deemed proper that in order to meet the ends of justice and avert the abuse of court's process the impugned proceedings and the charge sheet as well as cognizance order of the aforesaid case be quashed forthwith. The same therefore, are hereby quashed.
The application stands allowed.
A copy of this order be certified to the lower court forthwith.
Order Date :- 31.5.2019 Naresh