Neelesh Mishra and others vs State of Madhya Pradesh and anr.

This petition has been filed under Section 482 of

Cr.P.C. for quashment of the Misc. Case No. 616 of 2009

pending in the court of Judicial Magistrate, Ist Class, Itarshi,

District Hoshangabad under Section 9 (kha), r/w Section 37 (2)

(ga) of the Domestic Violence against the Women Protection

Act 2005.

In the present proceeding both the parties, i.e. the

applicants and the complainant- respondent no. 2 filed

applications, i.e. I.A. No. 1078 of 17 for grant of permission to

compound the offence and IA No. 1080 of 17 for compromise.

The Apex Court in Narinder Singh and others

Vs. State of Punjab and another reported in (2014) SCC 466

held as under in regard to powers of the court to permit the

parties to compound the offence :-

We find from the impugned order that the sole reason which weighed with the High Court in refusing to accept the settlement between the parties was the nature of injuries. If we go by that factor alone, normally we would tend to agree with the High Court''s approach. However, as pointed out hereinafter, some other attendant and inseparable circumstances also need to be kept in mind which compel us to take a different view.

We have gone through the FIR as well which was recorded on the basis of statement of the complainant/victim. It gives an indication that the complainant was attacked allegedly by the accused persons because of some previous dispute between the parties, though nature of dispute etc. is not stated in detail. However, a very pertinent statement appears on record viz., "respectable persons have been trying for a compromise uptill now, which could not be finalized". This becomes an important aspect. It appears that there have been some disputes which led to the aforesaid purported attack by the accused on the complainant. In this context when we find that the elders of the village, including Sarpanch, intervened in the matter and the parties have not only buried their hatchet but have decided to live peacefully in future, this becomes an important consideration. The evidence is yet to be led in the Court. It has not even started. In view of compromise between parties, there is a minimal chance of the witnesses coming forward in support of the prosecution case. Even though nature of injuries can still be established by producing the doctor as witness who conducted medical examination, it may become difficult to prove as to who caused these injuries. The chances of conviction, therefore, appear to be remote. It would, therefore, be unnecessary to drag these proceedings. We, taking all these factors into consideration cumulatively, are of the opinion that the compromise between the parties be accepted and the criminal proceedings arising out of FIR No.121 dated 14.7.2010 registered with Police Station Lopoke, District Amritsar Rural be quashed. We order accordingly.

In view of the judgment of the Apex Court proceedings in Misc. Case No. 616 of 2009 pending in the court of Judicial Magistrate, Ist Class, Itarshi, District Hoshangabad under Section 9 (kha), r/w Section 37 (2) (ga) of the Domestic Violence against the Women Protection Act 2005 are hereby quashed.

This petition stands allowed.