The territorial jurisdiction of criminal courts under the Cr.P.C. is limited to enquiries and trials, not to investigation, and must be considered in light of the facts of the case before transferring a case for trial.

This petition has been •filed by the complainant of Complaint Case No. 241C of 2004, a copy of which was se1t by the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Begusarai, to Sahebpur Kamal Police Station for investigation under Section 156(3) of the Cr. P.C.. Accordingly, Sahebpur Kamal Police Station Case No. 121 of 2004 was instituted and the investigation was taken up.

2. It appears that during the course of investigation a petition was filed by the I.O. of the case annexing therewith the supervision note of the Dy. Superintendent of Police, Ballia which indicated to the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Begusarai that the place of occurrence of the case being in Hisar (Haryana) it was legitimate for the court to transfer the whole case to the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Hisar (Haryana) for further investigation or any other Officer for proceeding. The learned Chief Judicial Magistrate took up the petition for disposal on 20.9.2007 and found that the case under Sections 366 and 380 of the Penal Code was one relating to the offences serious in nature and also required to be investigated into and as such directed the whole record of Sahebpur Kamal P.S. Case No. 121 of 2004 to be transferred for "trial and disposal" to the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Hisar, Haryana.

3. Being aggrieved by the above order the complainant/informant of the case has filed this petition as indicated above at the very outset of the present order.

4. While addressing arguments Shri Ashwini Kumar Sinha, learned Senior Counsel for the petitioner has drawn the attention of the Court to the provision of Chapter-XIII of the Cr.P.C., which is headed "Jurisdiction of the Criminal Courts in enquiries and trials". It has been submitted by drawing the attention of the Court to the provision of Section 181 of the Cr.P.C. that when it appears that any offence has been committed partly in one jurisdiction and partly in the other then any of the courts of either of the jurisdictions could have the jurisdiction to enquire into and try the offence. It was contended that territorial jurisdiction of the court was restricted only to enquiries and trials and not to investigation and further that there being quite some difference between 'investigation' and 'enquiry', the same principle may not apply to the case which could be investigated into by the police at a particular place. It was contended also that even assuming that the principles could apply in a case under the Cr.P.C., then the very principle enshrined in Section 181 of the Cr.P.C. made it competent that the case should be tried by any court of competent jurisdiction in Begusarai District.

5. Responding to the above contention Shri Anil Kumar Sharma, learned counsel for opposite party no. 2 has submitted that the contention of the learned counsel for the petitioner might be correct in the light of the provision of Chapter-XIII of the Cr.P.C. but it is too early to take a decision on the order as the learned Chief Judicial Magistrate, Begusarai, has actually transferred the case for trial by the court at Hisar, Haryana.

6. The provision of Chapter-XIII of the Cr.P.C. relates to enquiry and trial of offences which could be committed within the local jurisdiction of a court. What appears from the provision of that particular Chapter is that the main criteria and consideration for deciding the fora for enquiries and trials could be the local area jurisdiction of a court. However, the legislature has visualised many aspects of commission of an offence, like, say for example, a girl is picked up in Patna, she is taken by force to Kolkata to be confined and raped there and is further shifted from there for committing the same offence to Mumbai. A question for being decided by the court could be as to which court of any of the three jurisdictions could be competent to try the offence. It is for the above reason that the legislature visualized clarifying the position and indicating as to where the trial could b• held in respect of such contin