Criminal cases closure from court post Divorce / settlement

[cherry11115]

My ex-wife filed FIR under IPC : 1860 U/S, 341,506,34 and PCR which led to FIR under IPC 1860 U/S: 323,149,147,143,504,506. Post settlement, PCR was withdrawn and police station complaints were withdrawn and Police submitted B-report. However, judge has asked to produce complainants for closing and they are untraceable which is hindering my passport renewal.
Q: Pls help with advice or prior Judgements for closing criminal cases if complainants are not present post matrimonial settlements..

[Dr. Ashok Dhamija]

You have said that police has filed B-summary final report on completion of investigation, which is filed when the allegations made in the FIR are found to be false. In any case, it is a closure report in the investigation, which is filed under Section 173 of the Criminal Procedure Code.

As per the procedure, after filing of the closure report, the court is required to issue a notice to the complainant about such closure report. This is to enable the complainant to file a protest petition, if he or she wishes to do so against the closure of investigation by police. This is a requirement as per various Supreme Court judgments.

This may be the reason that the court may be insisting that the complainant should be produced in the court.

However, if the complainant is not traceable, summons / notice can be served on her known addresses. You can also help in locating her latest address through your contacts, because after all she is your ex-wife. If the notice cannot be served despite best efforts to serve it at her all known addresses, the court can consider taking further decision in the matter. You can also point out to the court that the case has already been compromised by her. If needed, you can even approach the higher courts.

In any case, in the worst situation, as I have explained in one of my articles, while there is a general restriction on grant of a passport to a person facing a criminal case in India, passport can still be issued to such a person on the specific permission granted by the concerned court (and for the period mentioned in the Notification of 1993) if he files an undertaking as mentioned in my article. Therefore, even though the B-summary final report is yet to be accepted by the court, you can still get the passport as per the procedure mentioned in aforesaid article.

     

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Dr. Ashok Dhamija is a New Delhi based Supreme Court Advocate and author of law books. Read more about him by clicking here. List of his Forum Replies. List of his other articles. List of his Quora Answers. List of his YouTube Videos.

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