Court No. - 21
Case :- CRIMINAL MISC. WRIT PETITION No. - 3247 of 2021 Petitioner :- Smt. Priti Devi And Another Respondent :- State Of U.P. And 3 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Kuldip Singh Yadav Counsel for Respondent :- G.A.
Hon'ble Dr. Kaushal Jayendra Thaker,J. Hon'ble Ajit Singh,J.
Heard learned counsel for the petitioners and learned A.G.A. for the State.
This writ petition has been filed by the petitioners with a prayer to issue a writ, or direction in the nature of certiorari to quash the impugned FIR dated 8.3.2021 registered as Case Crime no. 0157 of 2021, under Section 366 I.P.C., P.S. Akbarpur, district-Kanpur Dehat. Further prayer is that a direction be issued to the respondent nos. 2 and 3 not to arrest the petitioners pursuant to the FIR dated 8.3.2021.
It is stated that as per High School certificate the date of birth of the prosecutrix Smt. Priti Devi is 7.7.1991. It is further submitted that both the petitioner no.1 Smt. Priti Devi and petitioner no.2, Rajani Kant are major and they have solemnized marriage voluntarily in Arya Samaj Mandir on 29.8.2018 and had got their marriage registered On-line on the same day, the copy of the marriage certificate has been brought on record as Annexure no. 5 to the writ petition.
Having perused the documentary evidence available on record of this case, prima facie, the petitioner no. 1 appears to be not a minor and has entered into wedlock with the petitioner no. 2, which is affirmed by registered marriage certificate. At this juncture, instead of quashing the impugned FIR, we pass the following directions under Article 226 of the Constitution of India:-
a). The investigation of the FIR dated 8.3.2021 bearing Case Crime no. 0157 of 2021, under Section 366 I.P.C., P.S. Akbarpur, district-Kanpur Dehat shall go on.
b). The statement of the prosecutrix Smt. Priti Devi shall be recorded by a judicial officer which would be treated as a statement under Section 164 Cr.P.C. This exercise will be completed only after the lock down is lifted and the petitioner No. 1 shall appear before the judicial officer and the complainant who is the father of petitioner No. 1 will also be given a notice to be present before the concerned court.
c). If the investigating authority is satisfied that the prosecutrix namely petitioner no. 1 needs to be medically examined, that exercise may also be completed.
Looking to the averments made in the petition, at this stage, the petitioner no. 2 shall neither be arrested nor coerecively dealt with till the investigation is over.
We are passing this order in the peculiar facts and circumstances of this case.
With the aforesaid observations, the writ petition stands finally disposed of.
Order Date :- 12.5.2021 Faridul