Lal Gayan Ranjan Nath Shahdeo vs The State of Jharkhand and Others

Prashant Kumar, J.—This application has been filed for quashing the entire criminal proceeding in connection with Complaint Case No. 934 of 2008 pending in the Court of learned Judicial Magistrate, 1st Class, Daltonganj under Section 138 of the N.I. Act. At the outset, counsels for both the parties have submitted that the parties have settled their dispute outside the Court and as per the settlement, the counsel for the O.P. No. 2 has received a demand draft of Rs. 20,000/- issued in the name of O.P. No. 2, namely, Md. Shaukat Ali. Accordingly, it is submitted that no fruitful purpose will be served in continuing the criminal proceeding against the petitioner.

It is submitted that the offence is individual and commercial in nature, thus in view of the judgment of Hon''ble Supreme Court in B.S. Joshi and Others Vs. State of Haryana and Another, , the criminal case may be quashed.

Having heard the submissions, I have gone through the record of the case. In the instant case, learned Judicial Magistrate took cognizance against the accused/petitioner only under Section 138 of the N.I. Act. In the complaint petition, it is alleged that the petitioner gave a cheque of Rs. 20,000/- to the O.P. No. 2 which was not encashed due to insufficiency of fund. However, Mr. Faruque Ansari, learned counsel for the O.P. No. 2 submits that during the pendency of this case, parties have settled their dispute outside the court and pursuant to said settlement, today, he got a demand draft of Rs. 20,000/- issued in the name of O.P. No. 2. Thus, he has no objection, if the present criminal proceeding is quashed by this Court on the basis of aforesaid compromise. In view of the aforesaid facts and circumstances, since the dispute between the parties is individual and commercial in nature and as the parties have already compromised their case outside the court, I allow this application and quash the entire criminal proceeding in connection with Complaint Case No. 934 of 2008 pending in the Court of learned Judicial Magistrate, 1st Class, Daltonganj under Section 138 of the N.I. Act.