Quashing – Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 – s.362 – When not applicable – Suit for specific performance of the agreements for sale filed against the appellants by the second respondent and his brother was later withdrawn in view of the out-of-court settlement – Effect on complaint filed by the second respondent – Writ petition filed by the appellants for quashing the complaint was dismissed by the High Court on the ground that there was a bar u/s.362 as the contentions raised were rejected in an earlier criminal revision application, which cannot be re-agitated – Correctness:
Held: High Court lost sight of the fact that it was a substantive petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India for quashing the complaint on the ground that the continuation of the same was an abuse of the process of law – The second prayer in the writ petition could have been hit by s.362, as the prayer was to quash the order on the application for discharge – But the first prayer was for quashing the complaint itself – Therefore, dismissing the first prayer in the writ petition on the ground of the bar of Section 362 of the Cr.PC was erroneous – Furthermore, the second respondent filed application in the pending suit seeking withdrawal thereof categorically stating that in view of the outof-court settlement with the appellants, he would not lay any claim in any manner whatsoever over the suit properties – He never disputed the correctness of what was stated in the said application, and the order passed permitting the withdrawal of the suit – Thus, he gave up his claim under the agreements and therefore, continuing the complaint would be nothing but an abuse of the process of law – A case was made out to quash the complaint – High Court fell in error in refusing to do so – Complaint quashed. [Paras 15, 16]
As published in the Supreme Court Reports, Supreme Court of India. Headnotes prepared by: Divya Pandey. Text from the Indian Supreme Court Judgments open data set (Dattam Labs), CC BY 4.0.
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