JUDGMENT :

1. The petitioners, four in number i.e. father and his three sons, have jointly filed this petition under Section 561-A Cr.P.C. seeking quashment of FIR No.06/2018 under Sections 406, 420, 120-B and 506 (ii) RPC registered in Police Station Magam primarily on the ground that while the learned Judicial Magistrate 1st Class (Sub-Judge), Pattan [“the Trial Magistrate”] had taken cognizance and was seized of the complaint filed by respondent No.2, the police of Police Station, Magam was not competent to register an FIR on the same facts and set in motion the investigation.

2. With a view to appreciating the grounds taken by the petitioners to challenge the registration of impugned FIR, it is necessary to first set out material facts:-

Respondent No.2 is brother of Mst. Asifa Rasool, who conducted nikah ceremony with petitioner No.2, Ghulam Rasool Bhat on 29.12.2016. Soon after the nikah ceremony and before the ruksati of Mst. Asifa Rasool, a dispute arose between the parties to marriage. It is allegation of respondent No.2 that the petitioners had concealed the factum of petitioner No.2 already having a wife and a subsisting marriage with her. As is usual, during nikah ceremony