The power Of the High Court To Quash FIR is a special power. But what does it means? What Power Of High Court To Quash FIR? Let us see it in depth.
What to do if someone has lodged a wrong FIR against anyone. Does this mean a person who has not committed any offence and some person with wrongful intent lodged an FIR to the Police against the person then what he should do? So to quash the FIR lodged by someone wrongfully Supreme Court has set some Guidelines.
The Honourable Apex Court of India said that Section 482 preserves the inherent powers of the High Court to prevent abuse of the process of any court or to secure the ends of justice. The provision does not confirm new parts, It only recognises and preserves powers inherent in the High Court. This inherent power is provided by Section 482 of the CrPC.
On 4th October 2017 the Honourable Supreme Court in Parabat Bhai Aahir & Ors. Vs. The state of Gujrat. (Criminal Appeal No. 1723 of 2017) set out guidelines to be followed by the courts in the exercise of their inherent power under Section 482 of CrPC. Under this inherent power, High Court has the power to quash FIR.
The Honourable Supreme Court summarised the propositions after careful observations of various precedents on this subject.
The First Information Report is known as FIR or a criminal proceeding on the ground that a settlement has arrived or if the FIR prima facie appears before the court that the FIR was lodged wrongfully and there is no sufficient ground that the person against whom the FIR was lodged has committed any offence.
Court further said that while compounding an offence, the power of the court is governed by the provisions of Section 320 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973. The power to quash under Section 482 is attracted even if the offence is non-compoundable.
This means if the offence is compoundable both the parties can compound the offence and come into any agreement or arrangement under Section 320 of CrPC these provisions are given. If the offence is non-conpoundable then also High Court has the inherent power to compound the case or to settle the case and can quash the FIR.
In forming an opinion on whether a criminal proceeding or complaint should be quashed in the exercise of its jurisdiction under Section 482, the High Court must evaluate whether the ends of justice would justify the exercise of the inherent power.
While the inherent power of the High Court has a wide ambit and plenitude it has to be exercised to secure the ends of justice or to prevent the abuse of the process of any court.
The decision as to whether a complaint or First Information Report should be quashed on the ground that the offender and victim have settled the dispute, revolves ultimately around the facts and circumstances of each case and no exhaustive elaboration of principles can be formulated;
In the exercise of the power under Section 482 and while dealing with a plea that the dispute has been settled, the High Court must have due regard to the nature and gravity of the offence. Heinous and serious offences involving mental depravity or offences such as murder rape and dacoity cannot appropriately be quashed though the victim or the family of the victim have settled the dispute.
Such offences are truly speaking not private in nature but have a serious impact on society.
The decision to continue with the trial in such cases is founded on the overriding element of public interest in punishing persons for serious offences.
As distinguished from serious offences, there may be criminal cases which have an overwhelming or predominant element of a civil dispute. They stand on a distinct footing in so far as the exercise of the inherent power to quash is concerned.
Criminal cases involving offences which arise from the commercial, financial, mercantile, partnership or similar transactions with an essentially civil flavour may in appropriate situations fall for quashing where parties have settled the dispute.
The Honourable Supreme Court has set out the above Broad principles to prevent abuse of the process of courts or to secure the ends of justice and therefore one should approach the High Courts only with clean hands so as to enable the High Courts to prevent an abuse of process of court and to prevent an abuse of process of court and to prevent a gross miscarriage of justice. And definitely to secure the ends of justice.
Supreme Court has said that you should approach the High Court with clean hands. What does it mean that? The natural law of justice says that no polluted hands shall touch the pure fountain of justice. This means If you are in some kind of guilt don’t approach the High Court.
Else if there is an FIR against you and the FIR is wrongfully lodged against you or after lodging the FIR the victim and accused both have settled the issue you can approach the High Court directly under Section 482 of CrPC to quash the FIR and settle the case forever.
