HC pulls up judge for passing orders beyond jurisdiction

New Delhi, Jan 12 (UNI) The Delhi High Court has ordered an inquiry against a civil judge for passing orders beyond his jurisdiction.

The case related to the civil judge passing an order of getting an FIR registered against five people involved in a suit by the SHO concerned.

Quashing the FIR, the court yesterday lashed out at the civil judge for ordering an SHO to lodge an FIR which was not in his domain.

Justice S N Dhingra in his order said, ''This is known to every advocate that a civil court is not the place through which an FIR can be registered and the civil judge dispite knowing his limits, passed an order of issuing an FIR against the respondents.'' The court said it was a serious matter and the attitude of the civil judge should be taken into consideration, besides appropriate action taken against the adminstration.

The case pertains to five people -- Vivek Pathak, Munish Kumar Sachdeva, Vinod Kumar Singhal, Lovely Chopra and Arun Kumar Sharma -- approaching the Delhi High Court to quash the FIR lodged against them in the Dwarka Police Station.

They said Kunj Vihar Cooperative Group Society had filed a suit before the Senior Civil Judge. The judge issued directions to the SHO to take action against them following the society's application demanding lodging of an FIR against the accused.

On the basis of the civil judge's order, the SHO had registered an FIR but the same day the complainant society said they no longer wanted to proceed with the case and withdrew it.

The five people later approached the High Court to quash the FIR lodged against them. The FIR lodged at the instance of the civil judge was contrary to law and he had no jurisdiction to harass them, the petitioners alleged.

UNI SNG KD AS1950