The bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Ahsanuddin Amanullah recently stayed an order of the Rajasthan High Court which quashed an FIR lodged in Arunachal Pradesh.

The Single bench of Justice Birendra Kumar of the Rajasthan High Court passed the order of quashing of FIR on 23.05.2023 in a Writ Petition which has been assailed by the State of Arunachal Pradesh before the Supreme Court.

The Single Bench while quashing the FIR held "no cause of action, in fact, arose in the State of Arunachal Pradesh rather entire cause of action arose in the State of Rajasthan, hence, the Police/Court lacks territorial jurisdiction to entertain the impugned FIR and all subsequent proceedings."

Narrating the jurisdiction of the Rajasthan High Court in allowing the quashing Petition, the bench said that " Even if a part of cause of action would have arisen here this Court has jurisdiction to entertain the writ petition under Article 226 of The Constitution of India."

The bench also noted that one of the accused in the case approached the Gauhati High Court for quashing the FIR and the same came to be dismissed. Then Supreme Court was also approached the Supreme Court which came to be dismissed as not pressed but the same does not oust the jurisdiction of the Rajasthan High Court while quashing the FIR since every transaction of the deal took place in Rajasthan.

The Single bench observed that, "In the case on hand, the cause of action entirely arose within the State of Rajasthan. Transfer of money through online transaction from Pasighat to Jaipur Branch would not created the cause of action for prosecuting the accused-persons for cheating if the accused persons would have acted as per the agreement between the parties. The real cause of action evidently arose when the accused persons refused to hand over the property for which money was paid to the accused-persons by the complainant and this incident took place in Jaipur."

Case Details:-

SLP (Crl) No. 8663-8665/2023
THE STATE OF ARUNACHAL PRADESH
 VERSUS
KAMAL AGARWAL & ORS. Etc

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