The Delhi High Court has directed two feuding neighbours to serve pizzas and buttermilk to children at a government-run childcare institution, as a condition for quashing the cross first information reports (FIRs) registered against each other, after a dispute over handling their pet.
A bench of Justice Arun Monga, in his August 19 order, observed that the fight was private in nature and the continuation of the criminal case would serve no useful purpose.
In its four-page order, the judge observed that maintaining the FIRs served no useful purpose and would only rekindle hostility, whereas quashing them would “promote cordiality and bonhomie between the neighbours”.
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The incident took place on May 5, when the neighbours clashed over handling their pets, leading to registration of cross FIRs invoking penal provisions such as criminal intimidation, grievous hurt, and wrongful restraint at the Mansarovar Park police station.
The parties appeared before the court in person and affirmed of their own free will, without coercion or duress, that they had settled the matter and did not wish to pursue the criminal cases further. Their respective lawyers submitted that both sides had reached an amicable resolution, and the FIR and cross FIRs had stemmed from a serious misunderstanding between them.
The court, during the hearing, was informed that one of the complainants was in the business of baking and selling pizzas.
Considering their contentions, the court quashed the FIR’s and directed both parties to perform community service by serving pizza and buttermilk to the residents and staff of Sanskar Ashram in GTB Nagar.
“In such circumstances, continuation of the criminal proceedings would serve no useful purpose and would rather amount to an abuse of the process of law. Not quashing the criminal proceedings would rather rekindle hostility, whereas quashing the same would promote cordiality and bonhomie between the neighbours,” the judgment maintained.