Quashing of Criminal Proceedings Under BNSS Is Pertissible Where Settlement Renders Conviction Indispectively Remote

The four petitioners approached the High Court seeking to quash an FIR and criminal proceedings arising from Barharwa P.S. Case No. 79 of 2025 involving various sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023 (including 190, 191, 126, 115, 352, and 109) and several provisions of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.

While the investigation was still ongoing, the petitioners and the informant (Opposite Party No. 2) filed an Interlocutory Application (I.A. No. 6034 of 2026) supported by affidavits, stating they had reached a compromise through the intervention of well-wishers.

The petitioners argued the dispute was essentially civil in nature and exaggerated.

1. Whether the High Court should exercise its inherent power under Section 528 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), 2023 to quash criminal proceedings in non-compoundable cases involving the SC/ST Act on the basis of a compromise.

2. Whether the continuation of the proceedings would amount to an abuse of the process of law given the bleak possibility of conviction following the settlement.

Section 528 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (the successor to Section 482 of the Cr.P.C.), which saves the inherent power of the High Court to prevent abuse of the process of any court or to secure the ends of justice.

The principles established in Parbatbhai Aahir @ Parbatbhai Bhimsinhbhai Karmur and Others v. State of Gujarat and Another (2017) 9 SCC 641, which incorporated the guidelines from Gian Singh v. State of Punjab; these establish that cases with a "predominatingly civil flavour" or private/personal disputes may be quashed if the possibility of conviction is remote and continuation would cause extreme injustice.

The Court examined the nature of the allegations and determined that the offences were not heinous nor did they involve "mental depravity," but rather stemmed from a private dispute between the parties.

Applying the Parbatbhai Aahir framework, the Court reasoned that because the victim no longer wished to proceed, the chance of conviction was "remote and bleak."

The Court concluded that forcing the petitioners to undergo a trial would constitute "great oppression and prejudice," and quashing the FIR was necessary to prevent an abuse of the judicial process.

The High Court allowed the petition and quashed the entire criminal proceeding, including the FIR in connection with Barharwa P.S. Case No. 79 of 2025, pending in the court of the learned Special Judge, SC/ST Act, Sahibganj, qua the petitioners.

I.A. No. 6034 of 2026 was also disposed of accordingly.