SARITHA RAO Vs. RAGHUNATH RAO

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By way of present petition under Article 227 of the Constitution of India, the petitioners have assailed an order dated 26th November 2009 passed by Additional District Judge whereby an application of the petitioners under Order 7 Rule 11, Order 7 Rule 10 read with Section 151 CPC was dismissed.

(2.) Brief facts relevant for deciding this petition are that the petitioners filed a suit claiming damages on account of false allegations and accusations made by the respondents in Criminal case against the respondents at Secunderabad, Andhra Pradesh. The facts reveal that son of the Shri Y. Raghunath Rao and Smt. S. Charulata Rao was married to Smt. Saritha Rao, petitioner no.1 herein. The marriage did not go smooth and Smt. Saritha Roa filed a divorce in Secunderabad in 1998. This divorce petition was dismissed in March, 2001. She also filed a criminal complaint against three unmarried sisters of her husband and parents of her husband as well as against her husband with the result that unmarried daughters of the plaintiffs were arrested in the criminal case filed by the petitioners herein. The plaintiffs who were settled in US were forced to come back to India as warrants were also issued against them in their absence, executable at Delhi. They surrendered before the Criminal Court at Secunderabad and thereafter they were released on bail. Since the divorce petition of the petitioner was dismissed, an appeal against the dismissal of her divorce petition before the Andhra Pradesh High Court was preferred by the petitioner no.1 which was also dismissed on 9th July, 2002. The Andhra Pradesh High Court also observed that it appeared that petitioners had misused the process of law in initiation of the proceedings under Section 498A IPC against respondents herein in order to harass the respondents and respondents had therefore to come to Hyderabad from Delhi to attend the case. The petitioner then preferred an SLP before the Supreme Court which was dismissed on 9th January, 2004. The husband of petitioner no.1 Shri Ramachandra Rao and son of respondent filed a petition for restoration of conjugal rights and the petitioners filed a transfer petition before the Supreme Court and the petition was transferred to family court at Secunderabad whereby the family court at Secunderabad directed the petitioner no.1 to join company of her husband vide order dated 6th June, 2005 but she did not honour the order of the Court. Against the order of Family Court, she preferred an OP i.e. another petition on 18th March, 2005 and then again respondents had to travel from Delhi to Secunderabad incurring huge expenses. The criminal complaint filed by petitioner no.1 herein was dismissed by the criminal Court and it was observed by the criminal court that this complaint was filed by her to harass the members of the family of respondents. Against this order, the petitioner no.1 filed a criminal revision number 446 of 2003 before the High Court of Andhra Pradesh which was dismissed on 18th March, 2006. After dismissal of the criminal revision filed by the petitioner before the Andhra Pradesh High Court on 18th March 2006 and after noting the fact that the petitioner did not file any SLP against the order passed by Andhra Pradesh High Court to Supreme Court, respondent filed a suit claiming damages for false and frivolous prosecution and for harassment.

(3.) The petitioners filed an application under Order 7 Rule 10 and Order 7 Rule 11 CPC on the ground that the Court at Delhi had no jurisdiction as also on the ground that the suit was barred by limitation.