IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA Cr.Misc. No.47728 of 2007 SIKANDAR AZAM & ORS Versus THE STATE OF BIHAR ----------- 4/ 12/2/2009 Heard learned counsel for the petitioners and learned counsel for the State as also learned counsel for O.P. No.2. The petitioners are aggrieved by the order of cognizance dated 31.3.2006 in Complaint Case No.374C/05 under Sections-323, 341, 463, 465, 468 and 147 of I.P.C. pending before Sub-divisional Judicial Magistrate, Kishanganj. The allegations in the complaint are that the complainant was in possession of certain lands which were ancestral. That there had been a family partition between the co-owners and they were in possession of their respective shares. That the opposite parties claimed to have purchased certain lands from the co- owners and was disturbing the possession of the complainant by forging the signature and thumb impression of the co-owners. Learned counsel for the petitioners submits that the allegations themselves reflect a land-dispute between the parties, of a civil nature, when the co- owners who sold the lands to the petitioners/opposite 2 parties were not complaining. The extent to which the co-owners may have sold the lands of the complainant to the petitioner, if that be the case of the complainant, are matters to be examined and decided appropriately only in a civil proceeding. Resort to criminal law was an abuse of process of court inasmuch as no repossession of lands would, in any event, be given in a criminal case. Learned counsel for O.P. No.2 finds it difficult to oppose the last submission that no re- delivery of possession of the lands can be given in a criminal prosecution. The Court is satisfied of the essentially civil nature of the dispute where a co-owner may have sold in excess of his share under partition by intruding into the lands of the other co-owner. The order of cognizance and the entire proceedings in Complaint Case No.374C/2005 pending before Sub-divisional Judicial Magistrate, Kishanganj is hereby quashed. The application stands allowed. KC ( Navin Sinha, J.)