Judgment:
G.S. Chahal, J.
1. Bhupinder Singh and the other petitioners, who are his close relatives, have sought quashing of the First Information Report No 29 dated 1-5-1990, registered against them at Police Station Lalru, for an offence Under Sections 498A and 406, Indian Penal Code, oh the basis of a complaint filed by Inder Singh respondent No. 2 in the Court of the Judicial Magistrate 1st Class, Rajpura which was forwarded to the Police Station Under Section 156(3) of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
2. The facts briefly stated from the complaint, leading to the registration of a case, are that Baljit Kaur daughter of Inder Singh, respondent No. 2 was married to Bhupinder Singh on 11-3-1990 at village Jharmari, tehsil Rajpura. Gurminder Singh is the brother; Baldev Singh is the father; Scat. Baido is the mother and Sukhi is the sister of Baldev Singh petitioner. Smt. Amar Kaur is the wife of Gurminder Singh while Saun Singh is th father of Amar Kaur. It is alleged that at the time of marriage, the petitioners had raised demand for more articles of dowry. The articles detailed in Annexure A were given as dowry. After the marriage, Baljit Kaur was maltreated by her husband and his other relatives. She was even given inhuman treatment and was also tortured and given beatings many times. In fact, Bhupinder Singh was impotent and unable to consummate the marriage. Proceedings for annulment of marriage Under Section 12 of the Hindu Marriage Act are already pending. Baljit Kaur had been deprived of dowry articles which had been entrusted to Baldev Singh and his relatives at the time of marriage.
3. All the petitioners belong to village Chhappar tehsil and district Yamunanagar in Haryana. She had stayed with her in-laws and whatever maltreatment was given to her, it was at norm-laws' house at village Chhapar. Police Station Lalru has no jurisdiction to investigate this case and the Courts at Patiala have no jurisdiction to try this cause. On this ground alone, so far as the offence Under Section 498A is concerned, it has to be quashed against all the petitioners.
4. It appears that on account of strained relations between the husband and wife and the impotency attributed to Bhupinder Singh, the petitioner has implicated all the near relatives of Bhupinder Singh. Petitioner Saun Singh is the father of the sister-in-law of Bhupinder Singh. It is hard to believe that he was chosen as one of the persons to whom the dowry articles were entrusted. Smt. Amar Kaur is the sister-in-law and it will also be hard to accept the entrustment of dowry articles to her. To implicate all the relatives of Bhupinder Singh amounts to the abuse' of the process of law. The allegation of entrustment of dowry articles to Bhupinder Singh, husband of Baljit Kaur, obviously cannot be doubted. I hereby allow the criminal miscellaneous partly and quash the impugned FIR against all the petitioners for offence Under Section 498A, IPC and also quash the said FIR against all the petitioners, excepting Bhupinder Singh Under Section 406, IPC. With record to offence Under Section 498A, IPC, it shall be open to the petitioners to seek legal remedy in a Court having territorial jurisdiction in the matter.