Hon’ble Supreme Court has allowed a Criminal appeal here on 04-01-2019 by stating that criminal Proceedings for offences under Sections 307,294 and 34 Indian Penal Code,1860 (hereinafter referred as IPC) cannot be quashed in spite of any outer settlement in between accuse and complainant.
The above decision was given in the case of State of Madhya Pradesh v. Kalyan Singh & Ors. in which honourable court discussed the quashing of any criminal proceeding in the matters of non-compoundable offences.
BRIEF FACTS OF THE CASE
Birbal Sharma (Respondent No-5) filed a complaint against the respondent no. 1-4 under Sections 307, 294 and 34 of IPC. Respondents filed application for bail but the bail was rejected by the learned session court. Thereafter the accused approached the High Court by filing a case under section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 to quash the criminal proceedings on the ground that the accused and the original complainant ha settled the dispute amicably.
The High Court in exercise of power under section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 quashed the criminal proceedings, solely on the ground that a settlement has been made between the complainant and the accused.
The state of Madhya Pradesh (Appellate) opposed and challenged the judgement in front of Hon’ble Supreme Court on the ground that in the cases of non- compoundable offences no settlement could be made.
DECISION OF THE SUPREME COURT
Supreme Court held that offences under Sections 307, 294 and 34 are non-compoundable in nature and the High court has committed a grave error in quashing the criminal proceedings as the criminal proceedings in the matter of non-compoundable offences cannot be quashed just because of any amicable settlement between the accused and the complainant.
Thus, SC allowed the appeal to set aside the judgement of High Court and ordered to begin the criminal proceedings again.
Read the full Judgement Here
[embeddoc url=”https://www.sci.gov.in/supremecourt/2014/13173/13173_2014_Judgement_04-Jan-2019.pdf” download=”all”]
