Satraj Singh v. State Of Punjab & ANR.









 

 









CRM-M-51513-2025 



"!"# SATRAJ SINGH  

 












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appear on behalf of respondent No. 2 and reiterate the settlement and their concurrence to the quashing of the FIR alongwith all the other consequential proceedings.
9



Hon'ble Supreme Court in the matter of Gian Chand Garg v. Harpal Singh & Anr. Vide judgment dated 11.08.2025 in Criminal Appeal No. 3789 of 2025 (Arising out of Special Leave Petition (Criminal) No. 8050 of 2025) has held as under:

5. Be that as it may, at the outset, it is apposite to advert to settled position of law enunciated by this court with regard to nature of proceedings under section 138 NI Act and the legal consequences that ensues upon a compromise being entered into between the parties.

6. This court in M/s. Meters and Instruments Private Limited & Anr. v. Kanchan Mehta 2018 (1) SCC 560 held that the nature of offence under section 138 of the NI Act is a mainly a civil wrong and has

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been made specifically compoundable by section 147 of the NI Act which was inserted by the 2002 amendment to the said Act. The relevant observations have been extracted for reference: "This Court has noted that the object of the statute was to facilitate smooth functioning of business transactions. The provision is necessary as in many transactions' cheques were issued merely as a device to defraud the creditors. Dishonour of cheque causes incalculable loss, injury and inconvenience to the Vide the Banking, Public Financial Institutions and Negotiable Instruments Laws (Amendment) Act, 1988 payee and credibility of business transactions suffers a setback. At the same time, it was also noted that nature of offence under Section 138 primarily related to a civil wrong and the 2002 amendment specifically made it compoundable."

7. It is also apposite to reiterate the observations in P. Mohanraj & Ors. v. M/s. Shah Brothers Ispat Pvt. Ltd. (2021) 6 SCC 258 wherein this court referred the offence under section 138 NI Act as a "Civil Sheep" in "Criminal Wolf's Clothing" which meant issues agitated by the parties under the said provision are of private nature which are brought within the sweep of criminality jurisdiction in order to strengthen the credibility of the negotiable instruments.

8. Further in M/s. Gimpex Private Limited v. Manoj Goel (2021) SCC Online SC 925 this court took into consideration the effect of settlement arrived between the parties and observed that: "38. When a complainant party enters into a compromise agreement with the accused, it may be for a multitude of reasonsHigher Compensation, faster recovery of money, uncertainty of trial and strength of complaint, among others. A complainant enters into a settlement with open eyes and undertakes the risk of the accused failing to honour the cheques issued pursuant to the settlement, based on certain benefits that the settlement agreement postulates. Once parties voluntarily entered into such an agreement and agree to abide by the consequence of noncompliance of the settlement agreement, they cannot be allowed

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to reverse the effects of the agreement by pursuing both the original complaint and the subsequent complaint arising from such non-compliance. The Settlement agreement subsumes the original complaint........"

9. In B.V. Seshaiah v. State of Telangana & Anr. (2023) SCC Online SC 96 this court was of the view that when parties enter into an agreement and compound the offence, they do so to save themselves from the process of litigation and when such a step is taken by the parties, the law very well allows them to do so. Hence, the courts cannot override such compounding and impose its will. 2
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