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Akshay Jha vs. Central Bureau of Investigation & Anr. and connected matters

Criminal Miscellaneous Case · 2026:DHC:8455Decided 29 Sept 2026New Delhi Bench
CRL.M.C. 3375/2023, CRL.M.C. 3707/2023CNR: DLHC010178472023
Justice Madhu Jain

Background

The petitioner's proprietorship firm, M/s Kamayani International, received 51 kg of gold from MMTC in 1993-94 under a government export scheme; 43 kg was exported but 8 kg was neither exported nor returned, leading the CBI to register an RC and file a charge-sheet in 1999 alleging criminal breach of trust (Section 409 IPC) and conspiracy. The petitioner argued the export deadline had been abruptly cut from 120 to 45 days, that he had repeatedly sought extensions, and that MMTC had long since settled the entire monetary dispute (across four related firms) for Rs. 5,30,08,842/-, releasing his mortgaged property documents.

Decision Breakdown

The Court held that while settlement of a non-compoundable offence doesn't automatically end a prosecution, the inherent Section 482 jurisdiction is distinct from statutory compounding and may still be exercised where continuing a prosecution would be an abuse of process. Given the substantial quantity of gold that was actually exported (not fully misappropriated), the petitioner's contemporaneous correspondence seeking extensions, MMTC's full and final settlement with release of all securities, and the extraordinary ~30-year delay since the transactions (1992-94) and charge-sheet (1999), the Court found continuation of the prosecution would serve little purpose. It distinguished (without being bound by) an earlier 2010 order in a co-accused's case that had declined similar relief, noting more recent Supreme Court authority on settlement-based quashing. The FIR/RC and charge-sheet against this petitioner were quashed.

Lesson Learnt

Even a non-compoundable, decades-old economic offence involving a government company's funds can be quashed under Section 482 CrPC where the underlying commercial dispute has been completely and finally settled and continued prosecution would serve no real purpose, though this remains a fact-specific, case-by-case determination, not an automatic entitlement.

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