Court scraps woman's plea on grounds of jurisdiction

One-liner: A court in Delhi 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. 

Revision petition: The court was hearing a revision petition by a woman, who had earlier moved a magisterial court seeking directions for a police investigation.

Dowry harassment: 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. 

Not maintainable: The magisterial court had dismissed the plea in Sept last year, saying it was not maintainable on grounds of jurisdiction.

No ground: 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.

2017 verdict referred: The judge referred to a 2017 verdict of the Delhi HC, according to which magistrates had to adhere to the territorial jurisdiction and if their courts were not empowered to try the offence, they did not have the jurisdiction to pass orders for commencing police investigation. 

Status report: 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.  

Bottom line: Though she was presently living with her parents within the jurisdiction of the Okhla Industrial Area police station in Delhi, no offence was committed within the police station's limits, the court noted.