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Orissa HC junks circular on allowing graduate constables to probe petty cases
The Orissa high court said the police circular conferring power of investigation on graduate constables and criminal intelligence havildars was unsustainable in law
The Orissa high court has quashed the state government’s decision to allow the investigation of petty cases by Graduate Constables and Criminal Intelligence Havildars of police holding that it violated Section 157 (1) of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) which conferred the power of investigation to officers-in-charge of police stations only.
A bench headed by justice Aditya Kumar Mohapatra held that the police circular conferring power of investigation on graduate constables and criminal intelligence havildars was unsustainable in law as section 157 (1) of CrPC said that officers-in-charge of police stations can investigate cases. “In the event the graduate constables and criminal intelligence havildars are to be used in the investigation of cases, they are to be designated as subordinate officers and to be notified as such by the state government by a general or special order,” the HC said.
The Odisha police in January 2019 assigned investigating powers on graduate constables for minor offences under the Indian Penal Code (IPC), Odisha Prevention of Gambling Act and Odisha Fireworks and Loudspeaker Regulation Act, which invite quantum of punishment for less than three years. According to the government the move was intended to improve quality of investigation and reduce pending cases in police stations and to improve conviction rate in criminal courts.
The graduate constables were given 4-5 weeks of institutional training and 4-6 weeks of field training on investigating procedures, maintenance of case diaries and filing of charge sheets, after which they appeared for a test for final selection. However, they did not get any additional financial benefits.
The move to draft the graduate constables into investigation was prompted by plummeting conviction rate. From 21.5% conviction rate of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) cases in 2019, it went down drastically to 5.7% in 2021 as per National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report.
Last year, a few graduate constables had moved the high court challenging the government circular citing it violated the CrPC provisions.
The high court, however, said that in view of the rise in number of cases, the state government should bring a fresh police circular order in consonance with Sections 156 and 157 of CrPC as well as the Police Act and Manual.
