Chandigarh: When the Punjab and Haryana High Court made a strict remark that conducting police investigation without FIR is unacceptable in law and doing so is a violation of the orders of the Supreme Court. Then the police of Haryana, Punjab and Chandigarh swung into action and stopped the investigations started without FIR in all such cases with immediate effect.
This was confirmed to the court through affidavits filed by the Director Generals of Police of the three states and the Union Territory.
During the ongoing hearing in the High Court, it was found that in many police stations of Haryana, Punjab and Chandigarh, investigations are started on such complaints in which even FIR has not been registered. The court considered it a clear violation of the guidelines issued by the Supreme Court in the case of Lalita Kumari vs State of Uttar Pradesh.
A single bench of Justice NS Shekhawat said in clear words that the investigation done without FIR is not only invalid in the eyes of law but the officers involved in it will be forced to pay compensation. The court said that if such cases continue, contempt proceedings will be initiated against the concerned officers. The DGPs of Haryana, Punjab and Chandigarh filed affidavits in the High Court and clarified that now no police investigation will be conducted without an FIR.
All such investigations going on earlier have been stopped. Citing the decision given by the Supreme Court in the case of Lalita Kumari vs State of Uttar Pradesh (2014), the court said that if the ingredients of a cognizable offense are revealed in a complaint, then it is mandatory for the police to register an FIR. The process of investigation can start only when the First Information Report is registered.
The High Court has also indicated that it will continue to monitor such cases in future and if any police officer is found violating these guidelines, strict action will be taken against him. It also reiterated that it is the duty of the judiciary to protect not only procedural purity but also judicial decorum.
In the case, Panchkula resident Surendra Kumar had told the court that continuous investigations are being conducted against the petitioner without any crime. After getting a clean chit in the investigation, the investigation was again started. On this, the High Court had made Punjab Government, Haryana and Chandigarh respondents and asked how many such cases are there where investigation is going on without registering an FIR. At a hearing, the UT administration had told that a total of 1,959 complaints were received by them and out of these, 1,735 have been settled. The remaining 224 complaints will also be settled in a week.
