Attempt to murder case can’t be quashed even if complainant and accused reach compromise
Satya Prakash
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, January 5
An attempt to murder case cannot be quashed even if the complainant and the accused reach a settlement as it is a non-compoundable offence, the Supreme Court has said.
“…looking to the serious allegations against the accused, we are of the opinion that the High Court (of Madhya Pradesh) has committed a grave error in quashing the criminal proceedings for the offences under Sections 307, 294 read with Section 34 of the IPC solely on the ground that the original complainant and the accused have settled the dispute,” said a Bench of DY Chandrachud and Justice MR Shah.
Exercising its power of revision under Section 482 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), the High Court had quashed an attempt to murder case registered against accused Kalyan Singh and others at Maharajpur police station in Gwalior district of the state solely on the ground that the original complainant and accused had settled the dispute and the original complainant did not want to prosecute the accused. The state had challenged the high court’s verdict before the top court.
Allowing the appeal filed by the state of Madhya Pradesh against the High Court’s order, the top court emphasised that the offence in question was not compoundable under Section 320 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC).
Under the CrPC, compoundable offences are less serious in nature mostly affecting private persons and therefore, can be compromised by the victim and offender and the accused gets exonerated without facing a trial.
On the contrary, non-compoundable offences are serious in nature having implications for society and State and hence, can’t be an affair between the complainant and the accused and the offenders are not allowed to be let off as even if there is a settlement between the two sides.
Citing its earlier verdicts, the Bench said despite a settlement between the complainant and the accused, the criminal proceedings for the offences under Section 307 of the IPC cannot be quashed.
“This court has in a long line of decisions ruled that offences which are not compoundable under Section 320 of the CrPC cannot be allowed to be compounded even if there is any settlement between the complainant on the one hand and the accused on the other,” the top court said, quoting from its 2011 verdict in Gulab Das and Others versus State of MP.
