Delhi High Court directs accused to supply sanitary napkin to girls' school as condition to quash case

The Delhi High Court recently directed the accused in an extortion case to supply sanitary napkin to a girls' school for two months as a condition to quash the case [Shilpi Chaudhary vs. State of NCT of Delhi & Anr.]..Single-judge Justice Jasmeet Singh also directed the respondent in the case to report to the office of Delhi High Court Legal Services Committee (DHCLSC) and undertake pro-bono work for the next three months.The order was passed considering the fact that the useful time of the police machinery and judiciary was wasted in the case. "In this view of the matter, the FIR is quashed subject to the petitioner providing sanitary napkins to a girls’ school, which will be identified by the learned APP, not having less than 100 girls from Class-VI to XII for a period of 2 months," the Court ordered..The case arose after the respondent, a lawyer, filed a complaint alleging that the petitioner, who was her client, misbehaved with her and did not pay her fees after seeking professional consultancy.A first information report (FIR) was registered against the petitioner for offences under Sections 384 (Punishment for extortion) and 506 (Punishment for criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).The petitioner had also registered an FIR eight months before the FIR registered by the respondent.During pendency of the proceedings, a compromise was reached before the Delhi Mediation Centre, Karkardooma Courts, Delhi on February 26, 2022 by which they decided to put a quietus to the FIRs and undertook to cooperate with each other in getting the FIRs quashed..Both the parties told the High Court that they regret their actions and undertook never to repeat them in future.The Court said that no purpose would be served in prosecuting the complaint any further since the parties had arrived at a settlement and wished to put a quietus to the dispute between them."However, I am of the view that considerable time of the police and judiciary has been wasted. The police machinery has been put in motion on account of the acts of commission & omission on behalf of the parties and useful time of the police which could have been utilised for important matters has been misdirected towards this case. Hence, the parties must do some social good," the Court opined..Hence, it proceeded to impose conditions on both parties for quashing the FIR..Advocate Sanjay Vashishtha appeared for the petitioner. Additional Public Prosecutor Aashneet Singh along with advocates Priyanshu Upadhyay, Sandeep and Viraat Tripathi appeared for the respondents..[Read order]