Can’t file case in India for offence abroad: HC

Saurabh Malik

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 27

Five years after the Haryana Police registered a case against a man and his parents on a complaint lodged by his father-in-law alleging she was harassed and tortured abroad, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has decried the action.

Dubbing it as “proxy litigation”, Justice Jaishree Thakur of the high court said the story put forth in the impugned FIR was based on concoctions and the baseless allegations amounted to a blatant misuse of process of law.

“The allegations of cruelty, harassment and torture, if any, took place in United States and cognisance of it could not have been taken by the police in India,” Justice Thakur ruled. The FIR in the matter was registered on March 27, 2015, for harassment, criminal breach of trust and other offences under Sections 323, 498-A, 406, 506 and 34 of the IPC at Model Town police station in Panipat.

Seeking quashing of the FIR and consequent proceedings arising out of it, the petitioner-husband had contended that their marriage was solemnised in June 2012 at Delhi. After about 10 days, they left for the US where matrimonial disputes arose between them.

‘It’s proxy litigation’

• An FIR was registered against a man and his parents by his father-in-law on March 27, 2015, for harassment, criminal breach of trust and other offences in Panipat
• Justice Jaishree Thakur said territorial jurisdiction was required to be looked at for the purpose of constituting offence
• In the case at hand, all offences alleged took place in the US. As such, the FIR at Panipat was not sustainable with regard to the petitioner