Allahabad High Court
Godhna Devi And 2 Others vs State Of U.P. And Another on 30 May, 2024
Author: Vivek Varma
Bench: Vivek Varma
HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT ALLAHABAD ?Neutral Citation No. - 2024:AHC:99605 Court No. - 86 Case :- APPLICATION U/S 482 No. - 14506 of 2024 Applicant :- Godhna Devi And 2 Others Opposite Party :- State of U.P. and Another Counsel for Applicant :- Ayank Mishra Counsel for Opposite Party :- G.A.,Varun Dev Sharma Hon'ble Vivek Varma,J.
1. Supplementary affidavit filed by the counsel for the applicants, is taken on record.
2. Heard learned counsel for the applicants, Sri Anirudh Tiwari, Advocate holding brief of Sri Varund Dev Sharma, learned counsel for the opposite party no. 2 and Sri V.P.Tripathi, learned A.G.A. for the State-opposite party no. 1. Perused the record.
3. The present application under Section 482 Cr.P.C. has been filed to quash the entire proceedings as well as charge sheet dated 20.01.2024 and cognizance order dated 06.03.2024 arising out of Case Crime No. 177 of 2023, under Sections 420, 506, 406, 120-B IPC, Police Station Rajghat, District Gorakhpur, pending before the Civil Judge (Sr. Div.)/FTC, Gorakhpur in pursuance of the compromise deed dated 22.04.2024 entered into the parties.
4. Learned counsel for the applicants submits that:-
(i) the dispute between the parties were purely civil and private in nature;
(ii) the F.I.R. came to be lodged by the opposite party no. 2 owing to misunderstandings and misgivings between the parties and not on account of any real occurrence, as alleged;
(iii) there never was any criminal intent on part of the applicants nor any criminal offence as alleged had ever occurred.
(iv) at present, the parties to the dispute, have resolved their differences and have made peace;
(v) in view of the settlement reached between the parties, the parties pray another chance be given to them to develop and experience normal relationship;
(vi) the continuance of the criminal trial may in fact hamper the otherwise good chance of the parties enjoying a normal relationship; and,
(vii) in such changed circumstances, the opposite party no. 2 does not wish to press charges against the applicants.
5. Counsel for the applicant submits that compromise deed had been filed by the parties before the trial court. Further, pursuant to the order dated 17.05.2024 passed by this Court, the parties appeared and the trial court verified the compromise deed vide order dated 27.05.2024. Copy of the order of verification has been annexed as Annexure-SA4 to the supplementary affidavit.
6. In support of his contentions, learned counsel for the applicants has placed reliance on the judgments of Apex Court in the case of Narinder Singh vs. State of Punjab, reported in (2014) 6 SCC 466, Yogendra Yadav vs. State of Jharkhand, reported in (2014) 9 SCC 653 and Parbatbhai Aahir Vs. State of Gujarat, reported in (2017) 9 SCC 641.
7. Sri Anirudh Tiwari, Advocate holding brief of Sri Varun Dev Sharma, counsel for the opposite party no. 2 does not dispute the submissions advanced by the learned counsel for the applicants or the correctness of the documents relied upon by him. He submits that the opposite party no.2 has no objection, if the proceedings are quashed.
8. From a perusal of the record, it appears, the real dispute between the parties were civil and private in nature and criminal prosecution arose incidently and not as a natural consequence of the real occurrence. It is further apparent that the parties have entered into a compromise and they further appear to have settled their aforesaid real disputes amicably.
9. The court cannot remain oblivious to the hard reality that the facts of the present case and other similar cases present where, though the allegations made in the FIR do appear to contain the ingredients of a criminal offence, however, in view of settlement having been reached, the chances of conviction are not only bleak but, if such trials are allowed to continue along with all other trials that lie piled up in practically all criminal courts in the state, the continuance of trials in cases such as the instant case may only work to the huge disadvantage of other cases where litigants are crying for justice.
10. In normal circumstances, the court would be loathe to accept some of such compromise arrangements. However, that course does not commend to the court in view of the high pendency of criminal cases and the high propensity to lie and state falsehood that appears to be otherwise rampant in the society - where desire to take revenge appears to sometime over shadow the pure pursuit of justice; where winning a legal battle matters more than doing the right thing; where teaching lesson to one's adversary often appears to be the only purpose of instituting a criminal proceeding.
11. Thus, looking at the prevalent tendencies in the society, a more pragmatic, and less technical approach commends to the court - to let some criminal prosecutions such as the present case be dropped, for the sake of more effective, efficient and proper trial in other cases where the litigants appear to be serious about their rights and more consistent in their approach.
12. Considering the facts and circumstances of the case and the submissions advanced by learned counsel for the parties regarding the compromise entered into between the parties and taking all these factors into consideration cumulatively, the compromise between parties be accepted and further taking into account the legal position as laid down by the Apex Court in the case of Narinder Singh vs. State of Punjab (supra), Yogendra Yadav vs. State of Jharkhand (supra) and Parbatbhai Aahir Vs. State of Gujarat (supra) insofar as the applicants are concerned, the entire proceedings of the aforesaid case is hereby quashed.
13. The present 482 Cr.P.C. application thus may be allowed, subject however to payment of cost to be deposited by the parties before the High Court Legal Services Committee, Allahabad, within a period of six weeks from today. Such cost has to be imposed to let the parties (in this case) in particular and the society in general know that the courts cannot remain a mute spectator to unscrupulous and errant behaviour of its members. A society that will allow its members to misuse its courts, will ultimately suffer and pay a huge cost. Litigants, both genuine and bogus, will always continue to stand in a common queue. The courts have no mechanism to pre-identify and distinguish between the genuine and the bogus litigants. That differentiation emerges only after the hearing is concluded in any case, hearing requires time. In fact, even if the courts were to take punitive action against a bogus litigant, then, being bound by rules of procedure and fairness, such cases are likely to require more time to be devoted to them than a case of two genuine litigants.
14. In such circumstances, though no useful purpose would be served in allowing the prosecution to continue any further, however, no firm conclusion may be reached, at this stage, as to complete falsity of the allegations made against the applicants. The present 482 Cr.P.C. application thus stands allowed, subject however to payment of cost Rs.5,000/-, to be deposited before the High Court Legal Services Committee, Allahabad, within a period of six weeks from today.
15. The Legal Services Committee exists and works for the benefit of those litigants for whom court procedures are difficult to afford. It provides a crucial and essential service to the society itself. It thus appears proper to direct payment of the amount of cost to the Legal Services Committee, as a reminder and warning to the society and its members to introspect and reflect at their actions and deeds and also at the consequences that follow.
Order Date :- 30.5.2024 Lbm/-