ASHRAF ALAM & ORS. Vs. ASHFAQUE ALAM

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Heard counsel for the petitioners. In the opinion of this Court, the impugned order rejecting the prayer of the petitioners for grant of maintenance under Sec. 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (Cr.P.C.) only on the ground of lack of territorial jurisdiction by the Family Court, Patna cannot be sustained.

(2.) The Court below for this purpose ought to have looked into averments made in paragraph No. 12 of the application filed by the petitioners which would go to show that as a matter of fact after marriage the petitioner were residing with their parents in the house of their father opposite party but when they along their mother were driven away from the house of their father, they were forced to take shelter in their Nanihal i.e. the naihar of their mother, which is at Patna. In fact when this part of their statement was sought to be tested in the cross-examination of the mother of the petitioners but she could not be impeached or discredited. From paragraph No. 4 of her deposition in the Court it would be clear that she had stood by her statement that she alongwith her minor sons and daughter was residing in her Naihar at Phulwarisharif in Patna.

(3.) On the basis of such clear averment of the petitioners there was hardly any scope for the Court below to start making any roving enquiry as with regard to the territorial jurisdiction inasmuch as Sec. 126(1) Crimial P.C. itself lays down the jurisdiction of the Court in the following terms:-