Rifaqatullah Khan vs Emperor

Allsop, J.—This is a reference made to us by the learned Sessions Judge of Shahjahanpur that proceedings in the Court of a Magistrate in that district under the provisions of S. 488, Criminal P.C., should be quashed on the ground that the Magistrate had no jurisdiction. The man against whom an application was made that he should maintain his wife lives in Peshawar where he is employed in the Government Secretariat. It does not appear that he had ever lived in Shahjahanpur. The finding is that his family originally came from Shahjahanpur and that his father after retirement settled in that place. There is no evidence that the man against whom proceedings were taken has any property in Shahjahanpur or has ever lived there. The learned Magistrate has assumed jurisdiction because in our judgment he has misunderstood the meaning in English of the word ''reside.'' He has treated the word as equivalent to something in the nature of having a domicile in a particular place or having a place as your place of origin or the place where your family used to live. That is not, in our judgment, the meaning of the word in English. ''To reside'' means to live or to have a dwelling place or an abode. This man has never lived in Shahjahanpur for many years. He hag no house there. It is true that he may be a welcome guest in his father''s house from time to time, but that is quite a different matter. He has no property there, no furniture and no abode of his own to which he can go from time to time or at any time if he wishes to do so. It is perfectly clear that he cannot possibly be said to reside in Shahjahanpur within the proper meaning of that term. We, therefore, accept the reference and quash the proceedings.