CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS FOR NON-COMPOUNDABLE OFFENCES UNDER INDIAN PENAL CODE CANNOT BE QUASHED ON THE BASIS OF SETTLEMENT BETWEEN THE PARTIES

Recently, the Supreme Court in the case of State of Madhya Pradesh vs Kalyan Singh & Ors  has passed a judgement dated 04.01.2019 (the Judgment), whereby the Supreme Court held that criminal proceedings against the Respondent(s) herein for  offences under the Indian Penal Code, 1960 as amended thereof (IPC), namely, Section 307 (Attempt to murder), Section 294 (Obscene acts and songs) read with Section 34 (Acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) [(the Offence(s)] cannot be quashed on the basis of settlement between the Complainant(s) and the Respondent(s)-Accused person(s) (the Parties).

In this case, the Complainant filed a complaint against the Respondent(s)-Accused person(s) in a Police Station at Gwalior for committing the said Offences (the Complaint), but later on the Complainant filed an affidavit in the High Court of Madhya Pradesh to withdraw the said Complaint on the ground that the Parties had arrived at a settlement. Therefore, the High Court quashed the criminal proceedings initiated by the Complainant against the Respondent(s)-Accused person(s).

Aggrieved by the said order of the High Court, the State of Madhya Pradesh filed an appeal before the Supreme Court (the Appeal).

The Supreme Court herein held that the criminal proceedings involving non-compoundable Offences cannot be quashed irrespective of whether the Parties have amicably settled their dispute on the following grounds:

The said Offences are non-compoundable in nature.

The allegations in the Complaint for the said Offences are very serious in nature.

The Respondent(s)-Accused person(s) is reported to have criminal antecedents.

Therefore, the Supreme Court allowed the Appeal herein and further directed the criminal proceedings initiated in the Police Station at Gwalior to be proceeded in accordance with the law.

Suchit Patel

Associate

The Indian Lawyer

With

Harini Daliparthy

Senior Legal Associate

The Indian Lawyer