This Criminal Original Petition is filed to call for the records in connection with case in M.C.No.03 of 2016 pending on the file of the learned District Munsif cum Judicial Magistrate Court, Shengottai and quash the same.
2.The first petitioner is the husband of the respondent and the other petitioners are the in-laws of the respondent. The respondent has filed a petition in M.C.No.03 of 2016 before the learned District Munsif cum Judicial Magistrate Court, Shengottai, under Section 12 of Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005. The reliefs claimed by the respondent is contemplated under the said Act and upon proving the allegations found in the petition, the petitioners' entitlement for reliefs will be decided by the lower Court.
3.The petitioners have filed this petition, only on the ground that the first petitioner has preferred a divorce petition in H.M.O.P.No.168 of 2015, before the Subordinate Court at Sivakasi and that the petitioners have filed the petition as a counter blast. When the respondent has filed a petition under Section 12 of Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005, the maintainability of the complaint or the merits of the case cannot be gone into in this proceedings, where the petition is to quash the complaint.
4.The fact that the respondent is the wife of the first petitioner is not in dispute. The only other legal ground is regarding the jurisdiction of the Court to entertain the complaint lodged by the respondent. Even by stating that the petition has been preferred before a wrong forum, it is open to the petitioner to file appropriate petition before the appropriate Court, within the jurisdiction. The petitioners have raised only some factual issues, which are matters for evidence and it will be gone into at the time of trial. Truth or otherwise of the complaints can be decided only at the time of trial. In such view of the matter, this Court is not able to see any merit in this petition and hence this petition is dismissed.
5.The learned Counsel for the petitioners states that the petitioners are residing elsewhere and engaged in different jobs in different place and seeks indulgence of this Court to dispense with their presence before the lower Court.
6.Considering the grievance expressed by the learned Counsel for the petitioners, the appearance of the petitioners before the lower Court is dispensed with unless and until their presence is required by an order of the Court below. Consequently, the connected miscellaneous petitions are closed.
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