The High Court can exercise its inherent powers under Section 482 of the Criminal Procedure Code even in offences that are not compoundable and can quash prosecution, the Supreme Court has said.
Giving this ruling, a Bench of Justices P. Sathasivam and Ranjan Gogoi, however, said: “The power under Section 482… has to be exercised sparingly, and only in cases where the High Court, for reasons to be recorded, is of the clear view that continuance of the prosecution would be nothing but an abuse of the process of law. In other words, the exercise of power must be for securing the ends of justice and only in cases where refusal to exercise that power may result in the abuse of the process of law.”
Writing the judgment, Justice Sathasivam said that whether the criminal proceedings could be quashed on the basis of the facts and circumstances of the case depended on the settlement the parties had arrived at. But the plenitude of the power under Section 482 by itself would make it obligatory for the High Court to exercise it with the utmost care and caution.
In the instant case, Jayrajsinh Digvijaysinh Rana was aggrieved by the rejection of his plea by the Gujarat High Court for quashing criminal proceedings against him even after the parties clinched a settlement.
A futile exercise
Disposing of the appeal, the Bench said that in view of the settlement reached between the complainant and the appellant, there was no chance of recording a conviction insofar as the present appellant was concerned, and the trial was destined to be an exercise in futility. “Inasmuch as the matter has not reached the stage of trial, we are of the view that the High Court, by exercising the inherent power under Section 482 of the Code even in offences which are not compoundable under Section 320, may quash the prosecution.”
“In order to do complete justice under Article 142 of the Constitution, we accept the terms of settlement insofar as the appellant is concerned. In view of the same, we quash and set aside the impugned First Information Report registered with the Sanand Police Station, Ahmedabad,” the Bench said, allowing the appeal to the limited extent.
