A five Judges Bench of the Punjab and Haryana High
Court in Kulwinder Singh and Others v. State of Punjab
and Another [(2007) 4 CTC 769], framed broad
guidelines as regards quashment of the criminal
proceedings under Section 482 of the Code in respect
of offences which are not compoundable in terms of
Section 320 of the Code. One among the guidelines was
that the offences against human body, other than
murder and culpable homicide, may be permitted to be
compounded, when the court is in a position to record
a finding that the settlement between the parties is
voluntary and fair. These guidelines were quoted with
approval by a three Judges Bench of the Hon’ble
Supreme Court in Gian Singh v. State of Punjab and
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another [(2012) 10 SCC 303]. Similarly in Narinder
Singh and Others v. State of Punjab [(2014) 6 SCC
466], the Hon’ble Supreme Court has gone to the extent
of sanctioning invocation of the inherent power under
section 482 of the Criminal Procedure Code to quash
the F.I.R in a crime alleging offence under Section
307, which is a henious and serious offence. A
practical approach is seen adopted by the Hon’ble
Supreme in Madan Mohan Abbot v. State of Punjab
[(2008) 4 SCC 582] as regards quashment in respect of
offences like 379, 406, 409, 418, etc., the relevant
findings of which are extracted herebelow: