Don’t immediately rush to us if FIR not registered by police: HC

An aggrieved person is first required to approach the superintendent of police (SP). If the grievance still persists, he should approach the magistrate instead of rushing to the high court, the Punjab and Haryana HC said

Chandigarh

The Punjab and Haryana high court said that on non-registration of a criminal case by police, an aggrieved person should not directly approach high court

The Punjab and Haryana high court said that on non-registration of a criminal case by police, an aggrieved person should not directly approach high court.

He is first required to approach the superintendent of police (SP). If the grievance still persists, he should approach the magistrate instead of rushing to the high court, the HC said while dismissing a plea from an Amritsar resident terming it non-maintainable.

The petitioner, Rajan Kumar, in this case had sought direction to local police for the registration of an FIR against a person, who as per the petitioner, forcibly threw his belongings out of a shop after breaking it open. Further, he submitted that the local police were approached but did not act in this case despite there being a stay from a civil court in his favour.

The high court bench of justice Vikas Behl said that Supreme Court has time and again cautioned against the practice and held that the petition under Section 482 of CrPC (inherent powers of high court to issue order to secure ends of justice) should not be entertained for registration of the FIR as there are several alternative remedies available to the petitioner.

The bench also referred to a matter in which upon directions from a high court for registration of FIR, the Supreme Court had set aside the order passed by the high court observing that in case, such like petitions are entertained then the high courts will be flooded with such petitions and will not be able to do any other work except dealing with such petitions.

The HC bench referred to the provisions of the CrPC, which says if a person has a grievance that his FIR has not been registered by the police station his first remedy is to approach the Superintendent of Police under Section 154(3) CrPC (upon non investigation of a complaint, powers of superior officer to launch probe on a complaint) or other police officer referred to in Section 36 CrPC (powers of a superior officer in police). If despite approaching the superintendent of police or the officer referred to in Section 36 his grievance still persists, then he can approach a magistrate under Section 156(3) CrPC (under which a magistrate can take cognizance of a complaint on failure on the same by police).

The magistrate has very wide powers to direct registration of an FIR and to ensure a proper investigation, and for this purpose he can monitor the investigation to ensure that the investigation is done properly (though he cannot investigate himself). The high court should discourage the practice of filing a petition under Section 482 CrPC simply because a person has a grievance that his FIR has not been registered by the police, or after being registered, proper investigation has not been done by the police. For this grievance, he should approach a superior officer and in case still dissatisfied a magistrate or by filing a criminal complaint under Section 200 CrPC (examination of a complaint by a magistrate) but not the high court, the apex court judgment had said while dealing with the issue at hand.