KIRAN PURSHOTTAMDAS GORADIAversusSTATE OF MAHARASHTRA AND ANR

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rsk

                 IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY
                              CRIMINAL APPELLATE JURISDICTION


                          WRIT PETITION NO.3976 OF 2023

      Kiran Purshottamdas Goradia                               .. Petitioner
                 Versus
      The State of Maharashtra and Anr.                         .. Respondents

                                  ....................
       Mr. P. Y. Shankar a/w. Ms. Nazreen Khan and Ms. Priya Mailurkar
        Advocates for Petitioner.
       Mr. Sukanta A. Karmakar, APP for Respondent No.1 – State.
       Mr. Niranjan Mundargi, Advocate for Respondent No.2.
       Mr. Satish Chavan, PSI, Matunga Police Station.
       Kiran Purshottamdas Goradia, Petitioner present in Court.
                                      ...................

                                     CORAM : MILIND N. JADHAV, J.
                                     DATE          : AUGUST 29, 2026
      P.C.:

      1.      Heard Mr. Shankar, learned Advocate for Petitioner; Mr.

      Mundargi, learned Advocate for Respondent No.2 and Mr. Karmakar,

      learned APP for Respondent No.1 – State.


      2.      This Petition is filed under Section 482/528 of the CRPC/BNSS by

      parties on the ground of "consent quashing". With the able assistance

      of the learned Advocates for the respective parties and learned APP, I

      have perused the entire record of the case. I do not find it necessary to

      delineate the same in its entirety herein for the sake of brevity.


      3.          Since the gist between the parties emanates from a purely

      civil dispute in which the tenancy/landlord-tenant issue is involved


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and consent terms have         been filed by them in the appropriate

forum/Court , the request made for quashing of the complaint is

accepted. Parties are before me. Respondent No.2 - Complainant has

filed an affidavit dated 03.07.2026 before the Court. Parties are

present before the Court. The parties have settled their dispute once

and for all. Parties are free to live their own lives.


4.           Section 482 of the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973 conferred

inherent powers on High Courts to pass such orders as are justified to

give effect to any order in the Court, prevent abuse of process of any

Court or secure the ends of justice. In the BNSS this provision stands

incorporated with Section 528 which substantially reproduces the

language and intent of Section 482 of the CRPC, 1973 High Courts

invoke this provision to step in where cases have been instituted with

malafide motives or to harass the accused person thereby avoiding

procedural harassment. It empowers Court to dismiss FIRs or criminal

proceedings if there is no prima facie case or evidence against the

accused person/s or if orders are made in violation of the principles of

natural justice. The exercise of such powers under Section 482 of CRPC

and now Section 528 of BNSS remains discretionary and varies from

case to case.


5.           In State of Harayana vs Bhajan Lal1 the Supreme Court laid

down model categories and guidelines in paragraph No. 102 of the
1    1992 AIR 604

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said judgment in which the FIRs can be quashed. The Supreme Court

has furthered asserted that power under Section 482 is an

acknowledgment of "powers inherent" and not the source of powers

additional. It has held that even non compoundable offences can be

quashed where necessary. It has held that High Courts have to decide

whether the prosecution of an offence would further or be against the

interest of justice. It is also held that grievous offences such as murder,

rape, and dacoity cannot ordinarily be quashed even after settlement

because they involve societal implication.


6.        In the above context, when parties settle their private dispute

or the lis between them is purely civil and commercial or matrimonial

and the offence is not heinous or does not impact the society at large,

the Court can consider such request. In such a case awarding costs for

putting the criminal law into motion on the act of the accused persons

and thereafter both parties seeking quashing of proceedings by

consent, in my opinion, can be considered by Court which can impose

costs on the parties, especially so in matters coming before the Court

by “consent quashing”.


7.        For above levy of costs the legal principle rests on the logic

that criminal law cannot be used as a bargaining chip or a tool for

private settlements after draining the State and judicial resources. In

simple words, Courts cannot be used as a recovery mechanism to settle



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scores and/or bring the parties into subjugation. I am of the firm

opinion that imposition of costs in consent quashing matters is

required to be levied for three main reasons viz., wastage of public

resources, consumption of valuable judicial time and for deterrence

against vexatious litigation. This is because after criminal machinery

is set into motion, the Police Department is forced to take cognizance,

conduct investigations, attend courts, deploy personnel, collect

evidence and draft chargesheets, all using public funds/ public

exchequer. Equally substantial judicial time of the Trial Courts and

Sessions Courts is wasted for handling a case, presentation of a case,

issuance of summons, scheduling of trial dates, appointment of

prosecutors and their fees, etc. and ultimately if consent quashing is

allowed such judicial time stands completely wasted, which could have

otherwise been used for genuine Trial Court matters/ litigation. in one

way such matters result in clogging the legal system and lead to

humongous pendency which becomes difficult to tackle.


8.       Another aspect to consider for imposing costs is that it curbs

the growing trend of filing strategically exaggerated criminal

complaints (especially matrimonial or commercial disputes) simply to

force financial and legal settlements. In a given case made out on

merits of the matter, even the Complainant can be put to costs while

considering a quashing Petition purely on merits depending upon the

facts of each case before Court. In some strong circumstances, even the

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State machinery can be put to costs if a purely civil dispute between

parties strongly emanating from the facts on record is registered as

criminal case and given the flavor of criminality. This Court is also

equally conscious about not imposing costs blindly or mechanically if a

particular party is not found to be remiss or at explicit fault for abusing

the law, as also conscious about heinous offences impacting the society

at large while considering consent quashing.


9.        Applying the aforesaid principles to the facts of the present

case, I am of the opinion that the Petitioner for his actions resulting in

the complainant invoking criminal proceedings and now both the

parties seeking quashing by consent, the Petitioner should pay costs.

Hence, Petitioner is directed to pay costs of Rs.15,000/- towards the

corpus of A.K. Munshi Yojana’s J.T. Sheth Mandbuddhi Vikas Kendra, a

Special School imparting education and training to the needs of 150

special children in the field of Education (Classes for 6 to 18 years),

early intervention (upto 6 years) and vocational training (18 years

above) having its school address and building at A.K. Munshi Yojana

Chowk, 3rd Panjarapole Lane, C.P. Tank, Mumbai – 400 004 [Contact

Nos. 22425513 / 22423654] registered under the Society Registration

Act, XXI of 1980 under No. : 387/81 GBBSD and the Public Trust Act,

XXIX of 1950 under No. F-6809. RCI Reg. No. 0163 within a period of

two weeks from the date of uploading of this order. Petitioner is

present in Court and through his learned Advocates agree to pay the

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      aforesaid costs amount to the charity.


      10.              In view of the above matter, the present Petition deserves to

      be allowed subject to payment of costs as directed herein above. It is so

      allowed in terms of prayer clauses ‘b’ which read thus:-

                       “(b) That this Hon’ble Court be pleased to quash and set aside the FIR
                       No.0321 of 2023 registered by the Respondent Nos.1 on 14/7/2023
                       u/s.419 and 420 of Indian Penal Code at the instance of the
                       Respondent No.2 against the Petitioner.”


      11.              List the Writ Petition for compliance of the order regarding

      payment of costs on 23rd September 2026.


      12.              Advocate in Petition for Petitioner shall remain present and

      show compliance on behalf of Petitioner on the returnable date for

      compliance. If he does not remain present and there is non-compliance

      of this order, Court will pass appropriate order for recall of this order,

      which shall be noted by the Petitioner to Petition.


      13.              Writ Petition is allowed and disposed.



rsk                                                      [ MILIND N. JADHAV, J. ]


                   Digitally signed
       RAVINDRA by RAVINDRA
                MOHAN
       MOHAN    AMBERKAR
       AMBERKAR Date: 2026.09.04
                   11:55:09 +0530




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