Officer-In-Charge, Police Station, Dompe vs R.P. Anulawathi – CA PHC 77/2015-2021

In Officer-In-Charge, Police Station, Dompe v. R.P. Anulawathi and Others, the court addressed the propriety of the Magistrate’s jurisdiction and procedure under the Primary Courts’ Procedure Act, No. 44 of 1979, in a dispute concerning possession of land. It was determined that the Magistrate rightly proceeded without a settlement attempt under section 66(6), and that jurisdictional challenges not raised at the earliest opportunity result in waiver. The judgment set out that, under section 68(1), the determination is limited to who was in possession at the time of the police information, and that proceedings were properly instituted even where co-ownership was alleged, given the preventive nature of such inquiries. Technical defects in affidavits did not vitiate the proceedings, and the l