High Courts’ Power to Quash FIR

The power to quash an FIR (First Information Report) is among the inherent powers of the High Courts of India. Courts possessed this power even before the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) was enacted. Added as Section 482 by an amendment in 1923, it is a reproduction of the section 561(A) of the 1898 code. Since high courts could not render justice even in cases in which the illegal was apparent, the section was created as a reminder to the courts that they exist to prevent injustice done by a subordinate court.

Quashing FIR: Conditions

• The jurisdiction is completely discretionary. The High Court can refuse to use the power.
• The jurisdiction is not limited to cases that are pending before the High Court. It can consider any case that comes to its notice (in appeal, revision or otherwise)
• This power can be invoked only in an event when the aggrieved party is being unnecessarily harassed and has no other remedy open to it.
• The High Court, under section 482, does not conduct a trial or appreciate evidence. The exercise of this power (although it has a wide scope) is limited to cases that compel it to intervene for preventing a palpable abuse of a legal process.
• The High Court has the power to provide relief to the accused even if s/he has not filed a petition under section 482.
• This power can not be exercised if the trial is pending before the apex court and it has directed the session judge to issue a non-bailable warrant for arresting the petitioners.

A magistrate from a subordinate court can not restore a complaint that has been quashed by the High Court. This power of the high courts is also preserved by Article 21 of the Indian constitution. The rules regulating the procedure for invoking this power may be laid down by high courts, as conferred upon the high courts by the constitution. Article 372 of the Indian constitution states that these rules continue to be in force where they were framed previously.