Parminder Singh v. State of Punjab
In the High Court of Punjab & Haryana
Crl. Misc. M-7648/2015
Before Justice Paramjeet Singh
Decided on May 11, 2015

Relevancy of the case: Quashing of FIR under Section 66A after compromise between parties

Statutes and Provisions Involved

• The Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (Section 482)
• The Information Technology Act, 2000 (Section 66A)

Relevant Facts of the Case

• An FIR was filed against the petitioners under Section 66A of the Information Technology Act, 2000, on 14 November 2014.
• On 06 April 2015, the parties were asked to appear before a magistrate to get their statements recorded about having reached a settlement.
• On 05 May 2015, the magistrate submitted a report saying that the compromise appeared to have been reached at without any pressure or coercion from either side.
• Subsequently, the petitioners filed a case for quashing the FIR under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973.

Opinion of the bench

• The court relied on the precedents laid down in Madan Mohan Abbot v. State of Punjab and Gian Singh v. State of Punjab and determined that this case would not fall into the exceptional criterion of cases in which it would be contrary to the interests of justice to proceed further with the criminal proceedings.
• Besides, it was observed that Section 66A was struck down by the Supreme Court in the case of Shreya Singhal v. Union of India.

Final decision

• Petition allowed and the FIR stands quashed.

This case summary has been prepared by Akshita Rohatgi, an undergraduate student at University School of Law and Legal Studies, GGSIPU, during her internship with The Cyber Blog India in January/February 2021.