SHANTI DEVI ATAL Vs. JAIN ENTERPRISE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Both the revision-petitions having raised common question of law on identical facts are being disposed of by this common judgment and order.

(2.) The two revision-petitioners in Criminal Revision No. 348 of 1999 and the solitary revision-petitioner in Criminal Revision No. 391 of 1999 are the accused Nos. 2, 3 and 4 in Complaint Case No. 136c/99 pending in the Court of the learned Chief Judicial Magistrate, Dibrugarh. The accused-petitioners have sought to invoke the powers under S. 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure for quashing the criminal proceeding instituted before the learned Court below.

(3.) The power under S. 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure to quash a proceeding pending before a competent Court is a rare power to be exercised only in cases where the complaint petition and the initial deposition of the complaint, taken together and if accepted in its entirety do not prima facie disclose the offence as alleged. The law governing the exercise of power under S. 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure is no longer res integra. There can be no consideration of any possible defence that may be available to an accused and if the complaint petition and the initial deposition read together discloses the commission of the offence alleged, the power under S. 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure would not be exercised by the High Court to quash the proceeding.