This quash judgment from hon’ble high court of patna which held that there was no jurisdiction for Magistrate in Dharbhanga to prosecute the husband for 498A, whereas all the alleged offences occured in Hyderabad. Moreover there was a decree of divorce granted 2 years before instituting the 498A case!!
Tag: No Territorial Jurisdiction Applies Due To Telephone Call
Amrendu Jyoti And Ors. vs State Of Chhattisgarh And Ors. on 19 December, 2006
In this judgment of Chhattisgarh High court, IPC 498A was held to be a continuing offence as the allegations of mental cruelty happened over a telephone call, at a place which actually does not have jurisdiction. Funny.
Anyways this was turned around by hon’ble Supreme Court in 2014. Go here to read judgment.
Amarendu Jyoti And Others vs. State Of Chhattisgarh And Others on 4 Aug, 2014
This judgment declares a criminal case of filed at a wrong jurisdiction and permits transfer of case to another court with proper jurisdiction to proceed with case.
One piece of valuable information is
We find that the offence of cruelty cannot be said to be a continuing one as contemplated by Sections 178 and 179 of the Code. We do not agree with the High Court that in this case the mental cruelty inflicted upon the respondent no. 2 “continued unabated” on account of no effort having been made by the appellants to take her back to her matrimonial home, and the threats given by the appellants over the telephone. It might be noted incidentally that the High Court does not make reference to any particular piece of evidence regarding the threats said to have been given by the appellants over the telephone.
One thing to note is the judge is directing to effectively transfer case on court with proper jurisdiction.
However, we consider it appropriate, in the interest of justice to permit the Court at Ambikapur to proceed with the trial of Criminal Case arising out of F.I.R. No. 798 of 2005 dated 31.12.2005, in exercise of powers conferred on this Court by Article 142 of the Constitution of India.
The high court judgment which was appealed over in this SC judgment is here.
Another such previous wonderful judgment is available here.
