IMPORTANT POINTS
(1) Family Court has jurisdiction to determine matrimonial status of a person.
(2) High Court is entitled to consider other materials before exercising its powers of quashing under Section 482 of Cr.P.C.

JUDGMENT

Dr Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud, J.

1 Delay condoned.

2 Leave granted.

3 This appeal arises from a judgment of a Single Judge of the Gauhati High Court dated 4 April 2018 in Criminal Petition No 179 of 2016. The Single Judge has dismissed an application filed by the appellant under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure 1973 [“CrPC”] for quashing a complaint. The complaint, CR Case No 2512 of 2015, is pending in the Court of SDJM(S) II, Kamrup (M), Guwahati for offences under Sections 494 and 495 of the Indian Penal Code 1860 [“IPC”] .

4 The second respondent filed a complaint on 16 October 2015 before the Chief Judicial Magistrate stating that on 11 January 1996, he and the appellant were married in accordance with the tenets of Muslim law. According to the complaint, the second respondent came to know that the appellant was previously married to another person by the name of Shoukat Ali. The allegation is that during the subsistence of the previous marriage, she married the second respondent by suppressing the fact that she had a subsisting marriage. According to the complaint, the appellant has committed an offence punishable under Section 495 of the IPC since she concealed the fact that she had a subsisting marriage when she married the second respondent.

5 The case of the appellant is that she and the second respondent got married on 11 January 1996. Alleging matrimonial abuse at the hands of the second respondent on account of her failure to fulfill his demands for dowry, the appellant lodged a complaint and a criminal case, namely Case No 51/11, under Section 498A of IPC was accordingly registered at the ‘All Women Police Station’. On 5 September 2011, the second respondent is alleged to have forwarded a purported divorce certificate dated 18 August 2011 through the Sadar Kazi, Kamrup, Guwahati to a neighbour of the appellant. On 17 September 2011, the appellant instituted proceedings before the Principal Judge of Family Court – I, Kamrup, which was numbered as FC (Civil) Case No 545 of 2011 to challenge the purported divorce. By a judgment dated 20 July 2017, the Principal Judge of Family Court – I declared the divorce purportedly given by the second respondent to the appellant as null and void. In the meantime, on 11 September 2015, Complaint Case No 149/2015 was registered in regard to the allegedly forged certificate produced by the second respondent in collusion with the Sadar Kazi for offences punishable under Sections 420, 406, 468 and 34 of IPC. On 16 October 2015, the second respondent lodged a complaint case, being CR Case No 2512 of 2015, alleging that the appellant had committed an offence punishable under Section 495 of IPC.

6 The appellant instituted a proceeding under Section 482 of CrPC. The Single Judge of the High Court dismissed the petition by a judgment dated 4 April 2018. The High Court has held that “it is highly disputed” whether the appellant had entered into a marital tie with another person prior to the marriage with the complainant and whether the earlier marriage had ended in a valid divorce. Moreover, the High Court held that the appellant had not come up with a specific case that she was neither married earlier or that there was a divorce. Hence, in the view of the High Court, the allegation in the complaint involves matter of trial and a petition under Section 482 CrPC could not be entertained. The petition was consequently dismissed.

7 Mr Fuzail Ahmad Ayyubi, counsel appearing on behalf of the appellant, submitted that the complaint which was lodged by the second respondent was essentially a counter blast to the complaint which was lodged by the appellant that the purported certificate of divorce which is obtained by the second respondent in collusion with the Sadar Kazi was forged. Counsel submitted that the complaint alleging that the appellant had entered into a wedlock with the second respondent during the subsistence of an earlier marriage was lodged on 16 October 2015, soon aft