When can a Section 482 petition be filed?

Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure ("CrPC") grants inherent power to each
High Court, functioning in any part of India, to pass orders for either of these 3
purposes-

i) giving effect to any order passed under CrPC,

ii) prevent abuse of the process of any court and
iii) to secure the ends of justice.

Generally, litigants approach the High Court by filing petitions under Section 482 in cases
where they have been falsely roped in a crime and criminal proceedings have been
initiated against them. In these cases, the relief sought from the High Court is to quash
the criminal proceedings on the ground that criminal proceedings arising out of baseless
allegations amount to abuse of process of the Court and are contrary to the ends of
justice, which are 2 of the 3 purposes, listed in Section 482, permitting the High Court to
pass appropriate order granting relief.

The most common reasons why Section 482 petitions are filed are as follows:-

Quashing of First Information Report ("FIR") when no case made

out

All criminal proceedings arise out of an FIR lodged by some person with the police or a
complaint filed by him / her directly before a criminal court presided over by a
magistrate. The person who lodges the FIR / files the complaint is called informant or
complainant. Sometimes, individuals are falsely roped in the crime at the time of lodging
FIR due to various reasons such as when they are friends/relatives of the person who is
the main suspect in commission of the concerned crime or a person having grudges
against such individual, who may get an FIR lodged only to settle personal scores and
cause harassment. In such cases, petition under Section 482 CrPC is filed before the
concerned High Court having jurisdiction for quashing of the FIR so that it is rendered
null and void. After filing the petition, the aggrieved party tries to prove to the High
Court that the particular offence mentioned in the FIR and alleged to have been
committed by such party is not established from the facts disclosed in FIR and other
material available on record before the Court. On finding substance in the plea of the
litigant, the Court will quash the FIR, and any police investigation or other criminal
proceedings which are ongoing, on the basis of such FIR, shall be dropped with
immediate effect.

Quashing of FIR when dispute amicably settled  

A litigant (accused person) may also file a Section 482 petition before the concerned
High Court for getting an FIR quashed in a case where some settlement/compromise has
been reached between the accused and the complainant. Generally, the High Court will
quash the FIR after satisfying itself as to the validity of the compromise stated to have
been reached between the parties. To this effect, the High Court may rely upon the
statement made by the complainant in person before the Court that the dispute has been
settled or a written document/agreement filed before it by the petitioner showing the
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terms of compromise reached upon. As per the law laid down by Supreme Court of India
in Narinder Singh v. State of Punjab, (2014) 6 SCC 466, (see here) High Courts shall not
quash FIR under Section 482 of CrpC on the basis of compromise/settlement if the
concerned crime is of a heinous nature such as murder etc. because such crimes are
deemed to have a serious impact on the society and justify the imposition of punishment
on the perpetrator irrespective of the fact that a compromise has been reached.

Challenging orders passed under revision  

As explained above, a crime can be reported either by lodging FIR or directly filing
complaint before concerned magistrate. In case FIR has been lodged, the police will
thereafter investigate the matter and accordingly file a report before the concerned
magistrate. This report is called charge sheet which shows what offences prima facie
appear to have been committed by the accused based on the investigation conducted by
police. In case of a complaint directly filed with magistrate, the police does not conduct
investigation but the magistrate himself examines the complaint and accompanying
documents in terms of Sections 200 and 202 of CrPC. The magistrate may still order
police to investigate if he/she is unable to conclusively decide, based upon such
examination of the complaint, as to whether the accused should be summoned to face
trial or not. In case of FIR, this decision shall be taken by the magistrate after examining
the final report/charge sheet filed by police. In both the cases of complaint/FIR, if the
magistrate has decided to issue summons to the accused to face trial, he will pass an
order called order of cognizance/summoning order in terms of Section 204 of CrPC and
shall summon accused to face trial before the concerned court. In many cases, the
accused challenges the summoning order by filing a revision before concerned sessions
judge having jurisdiction. If the sessions judge dismisses the revision petition on merits
and chooses not to set aside the summoning order passed by concerned magistrate, the
accused may choose to file a Section 482 petition before concerned High Court seeking
quashing of the concerned summoning order as well as the order passed by the sessions
judge in the revision case.

Seeking directions from High Court for FIR registration -  

Section 154(1) of CrPC mandates the police to register FIR in case the complainant
provides information about commission of a cognizable offence but in many cases, the
police wrongly refuses to register FIR. In such cases, the complainant has power to file
an application before concerned magistrate under section 156(3) CrPC praying for
issuance of direction to the concerned police officials to register the complainant's FIR
and thereafter investigate the matter. In case the magistrate dismisses such application
on merits and does not direct registration of FIR, the complainant can approach the
concerned High Court under section 482 CrPC challenging the magistrate's order of
dismissal and seeking a direction to police to register the FIR and investigate the matter.

Quashing of charge sheet

Similar to the case where Section 482 petition is filed for quashing of FIR, a Section 482
petition may also be filed for quashing the charge sheet filed by the police after
investigation has been conducted by it on basis of a registered FIR. In this case, the
petitioner generally prays before the Court to quash the charge sheet and the
consequential criminal proceedings arising thereof. If the charge sheet has already been

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filed before the concerned criminal court by the time the accused person approaches his
lawyer for filing a section 482 petition, the lawyer will generally file a petition praying for
quashing of charge sheet and not the FIR per se because filing of charge sheet is a stage
subsequent to the registration of FIR and the accused is summoned by the court,
through a summoning order, on basis of charges mentioned by the police in charge
sheet. So, at this stage, the further criminal proceedings emanate from the charge sheet
and not the FIR and it is the charge sheet whose quashing is sought under a section 482
petition. In some cases, the petitioner may pray for quashing of both the FIR and charge
sheet but not the FIR alone in case the charge sheet has been filed.

Quashing of order issuing non-bailable warrant   

In a pending criminal case, the magistrate, while passing the order of cognizance and
summoning the accused to face trial, fixes a date for the appearance of the accused
before the court. In case the accused fails to appear on the said date, the court may
issue a non-bailable warrant against the accused for securing his/her presence before the
court. In such case, if the accused still does not appear before the court on the next date
of hearing, he/she will be arrested by the police and compelled to appear before the
court. Sometimes, Section 482 petitions are also filed before concerned High Court for
quashing of the magistrate's order issuing a non-bailable warrant. In these cases,
considering the limited scope of interference under Section 482 CrPC, the High Courts
are generally not inclined to quash the order issuing non-bailable warrant but, most
often, direct the petitioner to file an application before the concerned trial court itself
seeking cancellation of the order issuing non-bailable warrant.

Obtaining stay   

When a Section 482 petition is filed, the Petitioner also files an application for interim
relief of stay of criminal proceedings pending before the concerned criminal court. This is
logically advisable because a Section 482 petition may take some time to be finally
disposed off by the court. When the summoning order and/or charge sheet pertaining to
a particular criminal trial is under challenge in a Section 482 petition, the lower court
proceedings cannot be allowed to go on as it may lead to conviction of the petitioner,
before final disposal of the Section 482 petition, which thereby renders the proceedings
before High Court as redundant/infructuous. In some cases, the concerned High Court
may not stay the lower court proceedings entirely but passes an order of "no coercive
action" to be taken against the concerned petitioner meaning that the petitioner shall not
be arrested by the police during pendency of the lower court proceedings subject to
certain conditions which the High Court may specify in its order such as giving full
cooperation in the adjudication of criminal proceedings by appearing before the lower
court as and when directed. Obtaining stay on the lower court proceedings is not a
separate purpose in itself for filing a Section 482 petition but is an ancillary measure
clubbed with the final relief prayed for in the petition.

Some points which should be taken into consideration by a litigant and his/her lawyer to
ensure better chances of success in a Section 482 petition are as follows:

i) Evaluate the facts properly

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 Through a plethora of cases, the position of law that has emerged in relation to
Section 482 petitions is that High Courts are to sparingly exercise the inherent
power conferred in the provision and not habitually. The Supreme Court of India
has laid down illustrative guidelines as to when the inherent power should be
exercised in various cases such as (i) State of Haryana v. Bhajan Lal, 1992
SCC(Crl) 426, (ii) R.P. Kapoor v. State of Punjab, AIR 1960 SCC 866 and (iii) State
of Bihar v. P.P. Sharma, 1992 SCC(Crl) 192. Before filing a Section 482 petition,
the lawyer should evaluate the facts of his/her case properly in light of the
guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court, in different cases, to assess the
chances of getting a favourable order. This is important because the High Courts
are not supposed to exercise the inherent power as a routine and in many cases,
may refuse to interfere with the observation that the concerned petitioner has
ample opportunity to raise all objections, which were relied upon in the Section
482 petition, before the concerned trial court.

ii) Understanding the temperament of the court -

While taking a decision to file a Section 482 petition, it also helps to know the
temperament of the concerned court/judge before whom the petition will be listed
for hearing. It is not uncommon for lawyers to examine the existing roster of
judges of concerned High Court to identify the judge before whom the Section
482 petition shall be listed at the admission stage. This helps them in assessing
how likely would it be to obtain a favourable stay order from court in favour of the
petitioner. Sometimes, lawyers may wait for a day or two before filing the Section
482 petition if they expect the judges' roster to change resulting in increased
chances of getting a favourable stay order from court.

 
 
  

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