54-WP-4025-22.doc rsk IN IN THE THE HIGH HIGH COURT COURT OF OF JUDICATURE JUDICATURE AT AT BOMBAY BOMBAY CRIMINAL APPELLATE JURISDICTION CRIMINAL APPELLATE JURISDICTION WRIT PETITION NO.4025 OF 2022 Anil Atmaram Bhambore And Anr .. Petitioners Versus The State of Maharashtra and Ors. .. Respondents ....................  Mr. Shashikant Chaudhari a/w Mr. Gyanprakash Pal, Ms. Snehal S. Chaudhari, Ms. Ananya Thakoor, Mr. Pranav Thakare i/b Maharashtra Law Associates, Advocates for Petitioners.  Ms. Rajeshree Newton, APP for Respondent No.1 - State.  Ms. Shailya Rakesh Pal, Advocate for Respondent No.3.  Anil Atmaram Bhambore, Petitioner No.1 present in Court. ................... CORAM : MILIND N. JADHAV, J. DATE : AUGUST 29, 2026 P.C. : 1. Heard Mr. Chaudhari, learned Advocate for Petitioner; Ms. Newton, learned APP for Respondent No.1 – State and Ms. Pal, learned Advocate for Respondent No.3. 2. This Petition is filed under Section 528 of the 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. Dispute between the parties pertains to execution of Memorandum of Understanding between Respondent No.3 and 1 of 7 54-WP-4025-22.doc Developer with respect to possession of flats. Developer failed to handover possession of flats to Respondent No.3 therefore Respondent No.3 filed FIR No.196 of 2018 registered with Vakola Police Station for trespass and mischief. 4. Since the gist between the parties has emanated from a purely civil dispute on the basis of the memorandum of understanding between the parties, the present Petition for quashing by consent is taken up for determination. 5. By consent, the affidavit of the Complainant who is arraigned as Respondent No.3 - Sambhaji Bapurao Kale dated 03.08.2026 is filed before me. I have perused the same. Respondent No.2 is duly represented by an Advocate. Respondent No.3 is 78 years old and bedridden. I have no reason to disbelieve the affidavit filed by learned Advocate. 6. 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 2 of 7 54-WP-4025-22.doc 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. 7. In State of Harayana vs Bhajan Lal1 the Supreme Court laid down model categories and guidelines in paragraph No. 102 of the said judgment in which the FIRs can be quashed. The Supreme Court has further 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. 8. 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 1 1992 AIR 604 3 of 7 54-WP-4025-22.doc 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”. 9. 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 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 4 of 7 54-WP-4025-22.doc humongous pendency which becomes difficult to tackle. 10. 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 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. 11. Applying the aforesaid principles to the facts of the present case, I am of the opinion that the Petitioners for their actions resulting in the Complainant invoking criminal proceedings and now both the parties seeking quashing by consent, the Petitioners, should pay costs. Hence, Petitioners are directed to pay costs of Rs.15,000/- to towards the Corpus of A.K. Munshi Yojana a trust which runs medical centres, vocational training centres and which also runs a Special School called 5 of 7 54-WP-4025-22.doc J.T. Sheth Mandbuddhi Vikas Kendra, 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 week from the uploading of this order. All Petitioners through their learned Advocates agree to pay the aforesaid costs amount to the charity. 12. 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 may pleased to call records and proceedings arises from the FIR No. 196/2018 registered with Vakola Police station and issue a writ of Certiorari or any other writ, order or direction in the nature of same which a direction to quash the FIR bearing No. 196 of 2018 U/s448 & 427 & 34 of I.P.C. dated 26-05-2018by the Vakola Police Station, at Santacruz (East), Mumbai against the Petitioner along with the criminal proceedings arisen there from being Criminal Case No 20/PS/2019 pending before 71th Metropolitan Magistrate Court, Bandra at Mumbai.” 13. List the Writ Petition for compliance of the order regarding payment of costs on 24th September 2026. 14. Advocates in Petition for Petitioners shall remain present and show compliance on behalf of all Petitioners on the returnable date for 6 of 7 54-WP-4025-22.doc compliance. If they do 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 Petitioners in Petition. 15. Writ Petition is allowed and disposed. rsk [ MILIND N. JADHAV, J. ] 7 of 7 AJAY TRAMBAK UGALMUGALE Digitally signed by AJAY TRAMBAK UGALMUGALE Date: 2026.09.07 10:17:14 +0530