New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday held that FIRs cannot be quashed on the basis of the agreement between the offender and the complainant or the victim in cases of heinous crimes which are not private in nature and have a serious impact on society. The Supreme Court said that an order to quash FIRs or complaints relating to serious and heinous offenses only on the basis of an agreement with the complainant would set a “dangerous precedent”. Where complaints will also be lodged for indirect reasons to extort money from the accused.
According to a news in NDTV.com, a bench of Justices Indira Banerjee and V. Ramasubramanian, in its judgment, said that “In addition to this, financially sound criminals are also responsible for providing information in cases of serious and serious offenses like murder, rape, burning of the bride, etc.” / will be acquitted by buying the complainants and making a settlement with them.’
In its judgment, the Supreme Court set aside the order of the Gujarat High Court, which had quashed the FIR lodged in March 2020 for the alleged offense of abetment to suicide. Referring to the court’s previous judgments, the bench said that before exercising its power to quash an FIR, criminal complaint or criminal proceeding under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), the High Court should be vigilant and Consideration should be given to the nature and seriousness of the offense.
The Supreme Court held that ‘heinous or serious offenses, which are not personal in nature and have a grave impact on the society, such cases cannot be quashed on the ground of agreement between the offender and the complainant and/or the victim’. The Supreme Court held that offenses such as murder, rape, burglary, dacoity, and even abetment to suicide are neither private nor civil and such offenses are against society. Under no circumstances can the prosecution be quashed when a settlement is reached when the offense is serious and heinous and comes under the purview of an offense against society.
