PRAMOD KUMAR YADAV Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Challenge in the present Letters Patent Appeal is to the order dtd. 26/3/2018 passed in Civil Miscellaneous Jurisdiction No. 135 of 2018 by which the learned Single Judge has been pleased to hold and declare that in case the petitioner is aggrieved by order dtd. 13/12/2017 passed in Cr. Appeal No. 22 of 2017 by the learned 2 nd Additional Sessions Judge, Bhojpur, Ara he may have a remedy to file an application under Sec. 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure or Cr. Writ under Article 227 of the Constitution of India. The learned Single Judge has dismissed the Interlocutory Application No. 2238 of 2018 with a direction to the petitioner to remove the defects pointed out by the Stamp Reporter within ten days failing which the petition shall stand dismissed.

(2.) It appears that by filing the Interlocutory Application the petitioner wanted modification of the order dtd. 30/1/2018 passed by the learned Single Judge whereunder it was recorded that "the learned counsel for the petitioner submits that the petitioner had converted C.W.J.C. into Civil Misc. Petition." The Interlocutory Application was filed stating that the order recording that the petitioner had "converted' be modified as petitioner had "not converted'.

(3.) We have perused the impugned order. The learned Single Judge has taken note of the submissions of the petitioner and then also went through to the judgment of the Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of Kunapareddy @ Nookala Shanka Balaji v. Kunapareddy Swarna Kumari and Anr., reported in AIR 2016 SC 2519. The submission of the petitioner before the learned Single Judge was that in view of the said judgment of the Hon'ble Apex Court the proceeding under the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act has to be taken as a civil proceeding and, therefore, even if there is a provision of criminal appeal against the order of a Judicial Magistrate, there was a civil remedy in this High Court. This contention of the petitioner was rejected by the learned Single Judge holding that there is a full fledge procedure prescribed under the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act and against the order of the Magistrate there is a provision of appeal before the learned Session Judge and nomenclature of the same is Criminal Appeal.