IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA Cr.Misc. No.47614 of 2007 RAM BALI SINGH & ORS Versus THE STATE OF BIHAR & ANR ----------- 4/ 10/2/2009. Heard learned counsel for the petitioners and learned counsel for the State as also for O.P. No.2. The petitioner is aggrieved by the order of cognizance dated 2.5.2007 passed by Sri Ved Prakash Singh, Judicial Magistrate, 1st Class, Jehanabad in Protest-cum-Complaint Case No.685/06/ G.R. No.416/06 arising out of Makhdumpur P.S. Case No.63/06 dated 5.4.2006 under Sections-323, 427 and 147 of I.P.C. Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that the police after investigation submitted final report in the police case that it was basically a civil dispute and which came to be accepted by the court below after hearing the informant also on 5.12.2006 when the matter has proceeded on a protest petition. He submits from the allegations that the complainant was in fact seeking possession of lands in the garb of a criminal prosecution in a land-dispute between the parties and for which Demarcation Case No.12/05 filed by petitioner No.1 earlier in point of time was already pending. Concealing the pendency of the demarcation case an impression was sought to be created by the O.P. No.2 of the petitioner’s being an unruly members intruding into his lands and taking forcible possession by abusing and slaps. Learned counsel for O.P. No.2 is unable to controvert the specific submission of a land-dispute between the parties and the earlier demarcation case pending between them and is unable to give any explanation why it was not incorporated either in the F.I.R. or in the protest petition. This Court, on the facts and circumstances of the case and the allegations as made out by O.P. No.2 himself, including his conduct in concealing the pendency of the earlier demarcation case, is satisfied that the dispute between the parties is essentially of a civil nature with regard to lands. The relief sought for repossession of the lands obviously cannot be granted by a criminal court, but is the exclusive jurisdiction of a civil court. This Court, therefore, holds that resort to the criminal law by O.P. No.2 in what is essentially a civil dispute to be decided by a competent civil forum is a gross abuse of the process of court. The entire proceedings in Complaint Case No.685/06/G.R. No.416/06, pending before the Judicial Magistrate, 1st Class, Jehanabad is accordingly quashed. The application stands allowed. KC ( Navin Sinha, J.)