“Can a settlement wipe out a conviction?”, TheDossier, 29 Sep 2026.
“This year, the Supreme Court closed the book on a case that began twenty-one years earlier, not with a new trial, but with a private compromise struck after the accused had already been convicted and sentenced. The legal route that made this possible has been built up over more than a decade of Supreme Court rulings. Here is how it works, where it came from, and how far it reaches.
On 25 August 2026, the Supreme Court disposed of an appeal tracing back to an FIR filed exactly twenty-one years earlier, on 25 August 2005, at Police Station Abohar in Ferozepur district, Punjab (now part of Fazilka). The FIR invoked Sections 364, 325, 324 and 323 of the Indian Penal Code — kidnapping in order to murder, and causing hurt and grievous hurt. On 9 May 2012, an Additional Sessions Judge in Ferozepur convicted the accused and sentenced them to imprisonment and a fine. The conviction was on lesser charges than the FIR’s: kidnapping with intent to wrongfully confine (Section 365), and hurt and grievous hurt, each read with Section 149 on unlawful assemblies, along with rioting armed with a deadly weapon (Section 148).
After the conviction, the parties settled. The accused approached the Punjab and Haryana High Court under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, and the High Court directed the trial court to record the complainant’s statement. Before the trial court, the complainant said the compromise had been reached through the intervention of respected community members and relatives. The complainant also said it was genuine, made without pressure or undue influence, and of their own free will. Relying on Gian Singh v. State of Punjab, the High Court then quashed the FIR and all consequential proceedings, including the conviction. The State of Punjab appealed. The Supreme Court granted leave, but a bench of Justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and Shree Chandrashekhar left the High Court’s order undisturbed. That was the end of it: State of Punjab v. Avtar Singh & Ors. (2026 INSC 934)………”
Read the full article at TheDossier.
