In Brief
Appellants, closely related to the respondent and locked in civil disputes, were charged with assault, criminal intimidation, and property damage. They sought to quash the proceedings, arguing the case was a counter-blast to their own criminal complaint filed years earlier. The High Court refused to quash. The Supreme Court upheld this, holding that the inherent power under Section 482 of the Criminal Procedure Code to quash proceedings should be exercised sparingly. Where allegations prima facie disclose the necessary ingredients of criminal offences, and there is no manifest error by the magistrate, quashing is unjustified. Factual disputes—such as presence at the time of the offence—are to be resolved at trial, not at the quashing stage. The mere pendency of civil disputes is insufficient to quash criminal proceedings.
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