Criminal Law Videos - How to withdraw a criminal complaint

If the complaint so made is just a complaint and not been filed before a court of competent jurisdiction yet, then withdrawing the same is easy, the parties have to show that they have amicably reached an understanding out of the court and would no longer like to proceed on basis of such a complaint, but that only holds good as long as the offences in question are petty, withdrawal of an offence which is heinous in nature is difficult as it becomes the duty of the investigation agency to which the complaint to investigate, in case of serious offences.

A private complaint is comparatively easier to withdraw and can be withdrawn with the permission of the court under Sec. 257 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, it generally covers within its ambit petty crimes like theft whereas when police files a complaint, the procedure for withdrawing the same gets a little more complex and for withdrawing the very same, Sec. 320 of Cr.P.C. is invoked which talks about offences that are compoundable, so only the offences mentioned in section 320 of Cr.P.C can be compounded and the decision to get them compounded rests with the person against whom such an offence was committed in the first place.

A mere application is usually sufficient to withdraw a case on a private complaint, on the other hand the cases that are initiated on the basis of complaints made to police generally are for grave and serious offences and likewise withdrawing them is a procedural hassle as some of the offences that are initiated this way are offences against the state and thereby an application needs to be submitted to the High Court for the quashing of the FIR as well as proceedings before a Sessions Court.