{"id":241954,"date":"2021-01-08T15:00:01","date_gmt":"2021-01-08T09:30:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/?p=241954"},"modified":"2021-01-29T16:32:20","modified_gmt":"2021-01-29T11:02:20","slug":"j-petition-allowe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/2021\/01\/08\/j-petition-allowe\/","title":{"rendered":"J&#038;K HC | [S. 108 Evidence Act] A person whose whereabouts are unknown and who has not been heard of for more than 10 years, cannot be stated to have illegally run away from his service; Petition allowed"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>Jammu and Kashmir High Court: <\/strong>Sanjay Dhar, J., while allowing the present petition, clarified that a person who has been declared missing for more than ten years, cannot be said to have \u2018deserted\u2019 his service responsibilities.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #333399;\"><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><strong>Background<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Petitioner has filed the instant petition seeking declaration that her husband namely Asha Ram, be declared as dead in terms of Section 108 of India Evidence Act, 1872. A Writ of Certiorari to quash the order of respondents whereby the missing husband of the petitioner has been declared as <em>\u2018deserter\u2019<\/em> by the respondent authority has also been sought.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><span style=\"color: #333399;\"><strong>Issue<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Whether the respondents could have, on the basis of an enquiry, declared the petitioner\u2019s husband as <em>\u2018deserter\u2019<\/em> in the circumstances of the present case?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #333399;\"><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><strong>Observation<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Court reproduced Section 108 of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><em>Burden of proving that person is alive who has not been heard of for seven years &#8211;\u00a0 Provided that when the question is whether a man is alive or dead, and it is proved that he has not been heard of for seven years by those who would naturally have heard of him if he had been alive, the burden of proving that he is alive is shifted to the person who affirms it. <\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Further, Court referred to the definition of the word \u2018desert\u2019 as defined in Oxford English Dictionary to mean: (i) callous or treacherously abandon (ii) leave (a place), causing it to appear empty and (iii) illegally run away from the military service and connecting it with the facts of the present case, observed, <em>\u201cA person, whose whereabouts are unknown and who has not been heard of for the last more than 10 years, cannot be stated to have illegally run away from his service \u2026 the petitioner\u2019s husband is presumed to be dead because his whereabouts have remained unknown for more than seven years, as such, and by no stretch of imagination, he can be held guilty of having deserted the service of CRPF\u2026 The action of the respondents in declaring the petitioner\u2019s husband as \u2018deserter\u2019 and thereafter handing down the punishment of dismissal to him, is unsustainable in law.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #333399;\"><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><strong>Decision<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">While allowing the present petition, Court quashed the orders of the respondent authority whereby the petitioner\u2019s husband was declared \u2018deserter\u2019 and was dismissed from his service. Further, directions were issued to release all the service\/pensionary benefits of the petitioner\u2019s husband in favour of the rightful claimants.[Madhu Devi v. Union of India, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.scconline.com\/DocumentLink\/u5dNylwY\"><b>2020 SCC OnLine J&amp;K 723<\/b><\/a>, decided on 24-12-2020]<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #008000;\">Sakshi Shukla, Editorial Assistant has put this story together<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jammu and Kashmir High Court: Sanjay Dhar, J., while allowing the present petition, clarified that a person who has been declared missing <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67011,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,10],"tags":[44752,6252,29785,12441,2787],"class_list":["post-241954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-casebriefs","category-highcourts","tag-deserter","tag-evidence-act","tag-law","tag-pensionary-benefits","tag-service"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.4 (Yoast SEO v27.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>J&amp;K HC | [S. 108 Evidence Act] A person whose whereabouts are unknown and who has not been heard of for more than 10 years, cannot be stated to have illegally run away from his service; Petition allowed | SCC Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/2021\/01\/08\/j-petition-allowe\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"J&amp;K HC | [S. 108 Evidence Act] A person whose whereabouts are unknown and who has not been heard of for more than 10 years, cannot be stated to have illegally run away from his service; Petition allowed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Jammu and Kashmir High Court: Sanjay Dhar, J., while allowing the present petition, clarified that a person who has been declared missing\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/2021\/01\/08\/j-petition-allowe\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"SCC Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/scc.online\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-01-08T09:30:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-01-29T11:02:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/JK-High-Court.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1330\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"887\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Editor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Editor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.scconline.com\\\/blog\\\/post\\\/2021\\\/01\\\/08\\\/j-petition-allowe\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.scconline.com\\\/blog\\\/post\\\/2021\\\/01\\\/08\\\/j-petition-allowe\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Editor\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.scconline.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/84e42bab48238baf12c7e33b3d9761fe\"},\"headline\":\"J&#038;K HC | [S. 108 Evidence Act] A person whose whereabouts are unknown and who has not been heard of for more than 10 years, cannot be stated to have illegally run away from his service; Petition allowed\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-01-08T09:30:01+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-01-29T11:02:20+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.scconline.com\\\/blog\\\/post\\\/2021\\\/01\\\/08\\\/j-petition-allowe\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":461,\"commentCount\":0,\"keywords\":[\"Deserter\",\"Evidence Act\",\"law\",\"Pensionary benefits\",\"service\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Case Briefs\",\"High Courts\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.scconline.com\\\/blog\\\/post\\\/2021\\\/01\\\/08\\\/j-petition-allowe\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.scconline.com\\\/blog\\\/post\\\/2021\\\/01\\\/08\\\/j-petition-allowe\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.scconline.com\\\/blog\\\/post\\\/2021\\\/01\\\/08\\\/j-petition-allowe\\\/\",\"name\":\"J&K HC | [S. 108 Evidence Act] A person whose whereabouts are unknown and who has not been heard of for more than 10 years, cannot be stated to have illegally run away from his service; Petition allowed | SCC Times\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.scconline.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2021-01-08T09:30:01+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-01-29T11:02:20+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.scconline.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/84e42bab48238baf12c7e33b3d9761fe\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.scconline.com\\\/blog\\\/post\\\/2021\\\/01\\\/08\\\/j-petition-allowe\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.scconline.com\\\/blog\\\/post\\\/2021\\\/01\\\/08\\\/j-petition-allowe\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.scconline.com\\\/blog\\\/post\\\/2021\\\/01\\\/08\\\/j-petition-allowe\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.scconline.com\\\/blog\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"J&#038;K HC | [S. 108 Evidence Act] A person whose whereabouts are unknown and who has not been heard of for more than 10 years, cannot be stated to have illegally run away from his service; Petition allowed\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.scconline.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.scconline.com\\\/blog\\\/\",\"name\":\"SCC Times\",\"description\":\"Bringing you the Best Analytical Legal News\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.scconline.com\\\/blog\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.scconline.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/84e42bab48238baf12c7e33b3d9761fe\",\"name\":\"Editor\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/34e366be721c41333586de05faa13743195f5b142dcd7a015c6fabd2389521d0?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/34e366be721c41333586de05faa13743195f5b142dcd7a015c6fabd2389521d0?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/34e366be721c41333586de05faa13743195f5b142dcd7a015c6fabd2389521d0?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Editor\"},\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.scconline.com\\\/blog\\\/post\\\/author\\\/editor_4\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"J&K HC | [S. 108 Evidence Act] A person whose whereabouts are unknown and who has not been heard of for more than 10 years, cannot be stated to have illegally run away from his service; Petition allowed | SCC Times","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/2021\/01\/08\/j-petition-allowe\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"J&K HC | [S. 108 Evidence Act] A person whose whereabouts are unknown and who has not been heard of for more than 10 years, cannot be stated to have illegally run away from his service; Petition allowed","og_description":"Jammu and Kashmir High Court: Sanjay Dhar, J., while allowing the present petition, clarified that a person who has been declared missing","og_url":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/2021\/01\/08\/j-petition-allowe\/","og_site_name":"SCC Times","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/scc.online\/","article_published_time":"2021-01-08T09:30:01+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-01-29T11:02:20+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1330,"height":887,"url":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/JK-High-Court.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Editor","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Editor","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/2021\/01\/08\/j-petition-allowe\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/2021\/01\/08\/j-petition-allowe\/"},"author":{"name":"Editor","@id":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/84e42bab48238baf12c7e33b3d9761fe"},"headline":"J&#038;K HC | [S. 108 Evidence Act] A person whose whereabouts are unknown and who has not been heard of for more than 10 years, cannot be stated to have illegally run away from his service; Petition allowed","datePublished":"2021-01-08T09:30:01+00:00","dateModified":"2021-01-29T11:02:20+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/2021\/01\/08\/j-petition-allowe\/"},"wordCount":461,"commentCount":0,"keywords":["Deserter","Evidence Act","law","Pensionary benefits","service"],"articleSection":["Case Briefs","High Courts"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/2021\/01\/08\/j-petition-allowe\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/2021\/01\/08\/j-petition-allowe\/","url":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/2021\/01\/08\/j-petition-allowe\/","name":"J&K HC | [S. 108 Evidence Act] A person whose whereabouts are unknown and who has not been heard of for more than 10 years, cannot be stated to have illegally run away from his service; Petition allowed | SCC Times","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2021-01-08T09:30:01+00:00","dateModified":"2021-01-29T11:02:20+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/84e42bab48238baf12c7e33b3d9761fe"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/2021\/01\/08\/j-petition-allowe\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/2021\/01\/08\/j-petition-allowe\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/2021\/01\/08\/j-petition-allowe\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"J&#038;K HC | [S. 108 Evidence Act] A person whose whereabouts are unknown and who has not been heard of for more than 10 years, cannot be stated to have illegally run away from his service; Petition allowed"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/","name":"SCC Times","description":"Bringing you the Best Analytical Legal News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/84e42bab48238baf12c7e33b3d9761fe","name":"Editor","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/34e366be721c41333586de05faa13743195f5b142dcd7a015c6fabd2389521d0?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/34e366be721c41333586de05faa13743195f5b142dcd7a015c6fabd2389521d0?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/34e366be721c41333586de05faa13743195f5b142dcd7a015c6fabd2389521d0?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Editor"},"url":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/author\/editor_4\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/67011"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=241954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241954\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}