NIRMAL SINGH Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Petitioners have filed this petition under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure for quashing FIR No. 167 dated 10.9.2009 (Annexure P-1), under Sections 406, 498-A of the Indian Penal Code ('IPC' for short), registered at Police Station Sadar Ludhiana and subsequent proceedings arising therefrom in view of the compromise dated 22.12.2009 (Annexure P-2) arrived at between the parties.

(2.) Learned senior counsel for the petitioners has submitted that the parties have arrived at a compromise with the intervention of the relatives and respectables of the area. The jewellry articles as well as Rs.4,60,000/- towards lump sum maintenance etc. have been handed over to respondent No.2. Now the parties have been granted a decree of divorce on 20.1.2010 by the Additional District Judge, Ludhiana.

(3.) Respondent No.2, who is present in Court in person along with her father and her counsel, has admitted the contents of the compromise Annexure P-2 and the grant of decree of divorce. The jewellery articles and Rs.2,30,000/- were handed over to respondent No.2 in the Court on the last date of hearing. Respondent No.2 has admitted the receipt of Rs.4,60,000/- in all towards lump sum maintenance etc. from the petitioners. She has further submitted that she has no objection in case the FIR is ordered to be quashed. As per the Full Bench judgment of this Court in Kulwinder Singh and others vs. State of Punjab, 2007 (3) RCR (Criminal) 1052, High Court has power under Section 482 Cr.P.C. to allow the compounding of non-compoundable offence and quash the prosecution where the High Court felt that the same was required to prevent the abuse of the process of any Court or to otherwise secure the ends of justice. This power of quashing is not confined to matrimonial disputes alone.