| Sessions Court Alone Can Try Bigamy, Magistrate Had No Jurisdiction: HC | | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, Aug 8: In a significant ruling, the High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh at Jammu has quashed a criminal complaint and the consequential cognizance order passed by a Judicial Magistrate in a case of alleged bigamy, declaring that the Magistrate acted without jurisdiction.
Justice Rajesh Sekhri, allowed the petition filed by Pawan Kumar and others, observing that the offence under Section 494 RPC (bigamy) is exclusively triable by a Sessions Court and thus, the trial Magistrate had no legal authority to take cognizance of the complaint.
The complaint, originally filed by Nisha Kumari, alleged that her husband had solemnized a second marriage with one Palvi Devi during the subsistence of their marital relationship. However, the High Court found the complaint lacked crucial details-including the date, time, and place of the alleged second marriage.
Terming the allegations vague and legally unsustainable, the Court held that the absence of specific particulars rendered the complaint incapable of forming a legally tenable charge.
"The complaint lacks jurisdictional competence and fails to disclose essential facts necessary for initiating prosecution under Section 494 RPC," the Court ruled. It further stressed that criminal law cannot be used as an instrument of personal grudge, citing the precedent set in Sandupal Dutta v. Cdr. Urmilla Bhat.
Justice Rajesh Sekhri warned that allowing such proceedings would constitute an abuse of the legal process, especially when complaints are filed without substantive evidence or jurisdictional validity.
Accordingly, the High Court quashed both the complaint and the cognizance order dated 16.08.2018, bringing to an end the proceedings that had been pending before the Judicial Magistrate First Class, Kalakote.
(JNF) |
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