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Judgment
H.S. Thangkhiew, J
The instant transfer petition under Section 447 of the BNSS has been filed praying for transfer of a criminal case being Sessions Case. No. 5 of 2020 under Sections 299/304/201/503/506/34 IPC, which is pending in the Court of the learned Sessions Judge, South Garo Hills, Baghmara, to the Court of the Judge, District Council Court at Tura, on the ground that the parties involved belong to the Garo Scheduled Tribe community, and as such, by operation of the constitutional provision of paragraph 4 of the Sixth Schedule, the matter should be tried before the District Council Court.
Mr. R.Gurung, learned GA appearing for the State respondent No. 1, has however, objected to the transfer application and submits that it is not a matter which is strictly between members of the Scheduled Tribe of a district, but the deceased victim in this case is a non-tribal who happens to be the husband of the informant. He further submits that paragraph 4 having clearly provided that all the parties should be tribals, the transfer application therefore is incompetent and is liable to be dismissed.
Mr. S.Deb, learned counsel for the petitioners, on this objection, has submitted that though it is a fact that the deceased victim is a non-tribal, however, the informant who is the wife of the deceased, belongs to the Garo Scheduled Tribe community and will come within the definition of victim as provided in Section 2(y) of the BNSS. He therefore, submits that the wife being a victim and having lodged the FIR, the case is effectively between tribals and as such, the objections raised by the learned GA deserves no consideration.
Heard the learned counsel for the parties and also perused the FIR which is annexed to the application. It is seen that the incident had occurred on 08-08-2020, and the deceased had succumbed to the injuries due to the alleged assault committed by the four petitioners. As the deceased victim, who it is not disputed is a non-tribal, the only point for consideration therefore, on the submissions of the learned counsel for the petitioners, is whether the informant being a tribal, the matter can be taken to be a dispute that has arisen between parties belonging to the Scheduled Tribe of a particular district.
However, in short, without further dwelling on this aspect, to the mind of this Court, the very fact that the victim is a non-tribal and further the informant who is the wife is but a second victim, the matter cannot be held to be strictly a dispute between members of the Scheduled Tribe of a district. Paragraph 4 of the Sixth Schedule has provided that suits and cases only between the parties all of whom belonging to the Scheduled Tribe community shall be before the Courts constituted under the Schedule i.e. the District Council Courts. As observed earlier, as the deceased victim is a non-tribal, the instant transfer petition is therefore not entertained and the same is dismissed and disposed of.