Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 – s. 482 – Quashing of FIR – Territorial jurisdiction for registration of FIR – FIR registered at Arunachal Pradesh for offences u/ss. 420/120B/34 IPC by the complainant against accused persons – Complainant’s case that accused refused to hand over the property despite full payment for the sale of the land/building made by complainant – Said property situated in Rajasthan as also the address of accused is that of Rajasthan whereas address of the complainant was address of the company in Arunachal Pradesh – Three of the accused filed petition for quashing the FIR before the Gauhati High Court and the same was dismissed – Five others filed writ petitions for quashing of the same FIR before the Rajasthan High Court and the same was allowed – Correctness:
Held: Matter was purely civil in nature – It could not be said to be a case of cheating – Simple reading of the FIR itself does not disclose any cognizable offence for which the FIR should be registered and maintained – Complaint lodged was not worth being registered as a complaint and that too in the State of Arunachal Pradesh – High Court of Rajasthan rightly found considering all aspects of the matter that the offence, if any, although no offence is made out, would be within the territorial jurisdiction of Rajasthan and not Arunachal Pradesh – Normally, in a given case where issue is of territorial jurisdiction, direction could have been issued to transfer the investigation or the trial to the State where the cause of action would lie but in the instant case, no offence as such is made out – Entire FIR is quashed and the consequential proceedings thereto – Rajasthan High Court, in the subsequent petition moved by the respondent has after noticing the proceedings initiated in Gauhati High Court has given relief to the respondent and other respondents on the ground that no cause of action arose in Arunachal Pradesh – Hence, in exercise of the power under Art. 136, no inclination to disturb the findings in favour of the respondent in the writ petition by Rajasthan High Court – Order of the Gauhati High Court set aside and the entire proceedings arising out of the FIR quashed. [Paras 12-17]
As published in the Supreme Court Reports, Supreme Court of India. Text from the Indian Supreme Court Judgments open data set (Dattam Labs), CC BY 4.0.
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