A crime of ‘serious nature’ should be treated as a crime against the society and not an individual and such a case cannot be quashed even if the offender and victim reach an amicable settlement, the Bombay high court has said. A division bench of justices N.H. Patil and P.D. Naik on 25 August refused to quash a case lodged against 12 people on charges of attempt to murder and various other sections of the IPC. The accused had petitioned the high court seeking to quash the FIR lodged against them on the ground that they have amicably settled the dispute with the complainants. The high court, however, refused to accept this contention and said, “The accused have committed crime against the society.” The bench noted that if the crime committed by the accused is ‘heinous’ and of a ‘serious nature’ then it should be treated as a crime against the society and not against an individual alone. “It becomes the duty of the State to punish the crime doers even if there is a settlement/compr...