Chandigarh, March 31 -- The Punjab and Haryana high court on Monday acquitted AAP legislator Manjinder Singh Lalpura and seven others in a 2013 case of molestation and assault, involving a woman from the Scheduled Caste (SC) community, after a compromise was reached between the two parties. Lalpura, MLA from Khadoor Sahib, was awarded four-year jail by a Tarn Taran court on September 10, 2025, effectively unseating him from the assembly as the sentence awarded was more than two years. Under the existing election law in Section 8(3) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, an MLA/MP convicted of any offence and sentenced to imprisonment for not less than two years gets disqualified from the date of such conviction and continues to be disqualified for a further period of six years since his/her release. Notably, the seat was yet to be declared vacant by the Vidhan Sabha. The trial court had awarded the sentence to the MLA under the SC/ST Act for four years, three years under Section 354, one year under Section 506, and one year under Section 323 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The trial court had convicted seven others also. The bench of justice Tribhuvan Dahiya on Monday acquitted them of all the charges after a compromise between the parties. "The petitioners have no criminal antecedents. The offences alleged are not heinous in nature and cannot be termed as crime against the society; nor do they show mental depravity of the petitioners. Besides, the incident is about thirteen years old and nothing untoward has happened between the partiesthereafter. Since disputes between the parties have been amicably resolved by way of the compromise, decision on the pending appeals against conviction on merits will hamper their peaceful co-existence even after resolution of disputes," the bench observed while quashing the trial court order. The compromise between the parties was struck on February 4. A report, dated March 25, 2026, came from chief judicial magistrate, Tarn Taran, stating that the compromise arrived at between the parties is "without any pressure, coercion or undue influence". The state's counsel and complainant counsel had also deposed that compromise has been effected and that theyhave no objection to quashing of FIR and subsequent proceedings. The court took note of the Supreme Court judgment of 2012 in Gian Singh vs State of Punjab in which it was stated that criminal cases having overwhelmingly civil character, particularly those arising out of commercial transactions or matrimonial relationships or family disputes, should be quashed when the parties have resolved their disputes among themselves in a bona fide manner by entering into a compromise. It also took note of another SC judgment Shiji alias Pappu and others, among others in which criminal proceedings for offences under Sections 354 and 394 IPC were quashed since the parties had entered into a compromise and there were no chances of conviction. Also, even if criminal proceedings have resulted in conviction in cases of non-compoundable offences and thereafter a compromise has been effected between the parties, the judgment of conviction can be set aside by the court in exercise of its inherent powers to secure the ends of justice, the SC had opined. The court observed the case appears to be predominantly of private nature and falls in the category of cases that can be quashed by the high court. Hence, it allowed all the appeals and FIR, judgment of conviction and sentencing have been quashed. The allegations were that the complainant, who belongs to the Scheduled Caste community, was assaulted by the accused, including Lalpura and some cops from the Tarn Taran police, on March 3, 2013. The incident took place when the complainant, along with her family members, came to a marriage palace on Goindwal Road for a function. At that time, Lalpura was a taxi driver. Lalpura and others had had filed appeals in high court immediately after the conviction in September 2025 claiming 'false implication'....