High court stays FIR against juvenile justice board member

The Bombay high court (HC) recently rapped a magistrate’s court for not making sure that proper procedure was followed while acting on a complaint against a member

The Bombay high court (HC) recently rapped a magistrate’s court for not making sure that proper procedure was followed while acting on a complaint against a member of the juvenile justice board (JJB), who was accused of outraging the modesty of a women advocate, and stayed the FIR.

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A bench of justice A M Badar, while hearing a petition filed by Dr Dipak Kumar Chattopadhyay, was informed by advocate Madhavi Tavanandi that Chattopadhyay, a lawyer, was appointed to the JJB and was conducting a hearing in the Dongri Observation Home on July 24, 2017 as a member of the JJB. While the hearing was in-camera, an advocate, who was not related to the case, barged inside the room. When asked to leave, she created a ruckus, after which Chattopadhyay issued a contempt notice against her. Tavanandi further submitted that within half-an-hour of the contempt notice being issued against the advocate, she lodged an FIR of outraging of modesty against Chattopadhyay in Dongri police station. The FIR, Tavanandi submitted, was not valid as Chattopadhyay was executing his duties on a statutory post and under section 197 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), prior permission from the authorities was required to register the FIR, but the same was not followed by the police.

She added that although the magistrate was informed about the lapse and non-compliance with the CrPC stipulations, he did not pay heed and hence Chattopadhyay had to approach the court to stay the FIR.

The court observed, “As such, prima facie, it appeared that cognisance of the alleged offence ought not to have been taken by the learned Metropolitan Magistrate without sanction as required by section 197 of the CrPC.” The bench stayed the operation of the FIR till the disposal of the petition.