SHAMSHER SINGH Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) SHAMSHER Singh, Rup Singh and Kashmira Singh were being prosecuted in the Court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Faridkot, for the offence under Section 9 of the Punjab Security of State Act, 1953 and 3 of the Police (Incitement to Disaffection) Act, 1922. The learned Public Prosecutor, filed an application under Section 321 of the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973 (for short, the Code) on the grounds that the Government had decided to withdraw all the cases against the agitating police personnel and that to keep peace and security in the State and with a view to create a good-will between the Employers and the Employees, he may be allowed to withdraw from the prosecution. The learned Magistrate however, declined his consent to withdraw from the prosecution due to insufficient grounds for withdrawal. Feeling aggrieved the accused-petitioners have now come up in revision.

(2.) THE learned counsel for the petitioners had urged that the order of the learned Chief Judicial Magistrate, Faridkot, cannot be sustained. It is contended that Section 321 of the Code of Criminal Procedure 1973 (For short, the Code) invests the Public Prosecutor incharge of the case with the power to exercise his discretion to withdraw from the prosecution with the consent of the Court at any time before the judgment is pronounced. It is further urged that on the facts and circumstances of this case, the ends of public justice are better served by withdrawal rather than continuation of the prosecution against the petitioners and that of the prosecution against the petitioners and that it will also be in the interest of administration of Justice if the Public Prosecutor is permitted to withdraw from the prosecution in the peculiar circumstances of the case.

(3.) A similar question arose before the Supreme Court in M.N. Sankaranarayanan Nair v. P.V Balakrishnan, AIR 1972 SC 496, wherein the Court had approved the principles laid down in The State of Bihar v. Ram Naresh Pandey, (supra) and has further observed as under :-