Is the illegal trespass.occupation of a place/area by an outsider a civil offense or a criminal offense?

Before my house there is a common passage belonging to the owners of the four houses.As per my Fathers probated WILL it is to be used only for "egress" and "ingress".A tenant of my neighbor one of the owners of the common passage is parking his car in the common passage.I have approached the police to prosecute him under 147IPC for illegal trespass.I hav e received a reply to take up the matter in a civil Court.I request to let me know whether this is a civil matter or a criminal matter as I consider him to be an outsider and has no locus standi here.He only has a right in the tenanted area and nowhere else.

i'm not sure i follow the trespassing part, after reading that the passage is common to four houses...
...was your father the owner of all four??
...i would think that if a common passage only had 1 permissible use, it would have to be posted or made apparent to any users of the passage; i would think that whoever is parking there would have the right to be notified of the only permissible/legallly allowed use of the passage, and asked to please resolve the situation...
...i would also guess that possibly the facts are not clear to the police, either, and that if the person parking there is causing any type of nuisance, it would be imperative to clarify the situation to the police in order to procede further...
...there are, in fact, criminal tresspassing codes, but if the police are viewing it as a dispute between neighbors, that is probably why they suggested civil court...
...however, unless you have suffered some kind of material or emotional loss as a result of this car being parked there, i don't see how civil court can help...

Right on . . .

you probably will have to sue the neighbor that owns the property to force him to enforce the rule regarding the common area. He is who you should be calling,once advising the tenant of the situation did no good.