Delhi Court Dismisses Plea Of Woman On Grounds Of Jurisdiction

A court here has upheld the order of a magisterial court to disallow an application seeking police investigation into an alleged rape and dowry case in Kanpur, saying the area is beyond its territorial limits. The court was hearing a revision petition by a woman, who had earlier moved a magisterial court seeking directions for a police investigation. The complainant claimed that she was harassed for dowry, that her husband had illicit relations and she was raped by her sister-in-law's father in Kanpur. 

The magisterial court had dismissed the plea in September last year, saying it was not maintainable on grounds of jurisdiction. The magisterial court had “rightly come to the conclusion that there is no ground to direct the police to register an FIR,” Additional Sessions Judge Arul Varma said in a recent order, adding, there was no “infirmity” in the order and that the present criminal revision petition was “dismissed.”The judge referred to a 2017 verdict of the Delhi High Court, according to which magistrates had to adhere to the territorial jurisdiction and if their courts were not empowered to try the offense, they did not have the jurisdiction to pass orders for commencing police investigation. 

“Thus, it is explicit that the magistrate had correctly applied the provisions of the code of criminal procedure (CrPC) and had rightly disallowed the application seeking an investigation in an area beyond the territorial limits,” the judge said. The court noted that according to the Investigating Officer's (IO's) status report, all allegations pertained to the period when the complainant was residing in Kanpur. Though she was presently living with her parents within the jurisdiction of the Okhla Industrial Area police station here, no offense was committed within the police station's limits, the court noted.