BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday took police officials to task for lack of elementary knowledge of criminal law and said that all police officers - including IPS officers - need to be trained on the Lalita Kumari judgment.
In the Lalita Kumari case, the Supreme Court issued certain guidelines with regard to the registration of First Information Reports (FIRs). The court was hearing a PIL which sought direction to the state to take action on 113 child pornography cases mentioned in a report submitted by the Ministry of Women and Child Development in 2018.
Referring to the affidavit submitted by the DG&IGP, the division bench of Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice Hemant Chandangoudar said that prima facie it appears that the guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court in the Lalita Kumari case has been set at naught. The DG&IGP did not know that there will be no complaints in such child pornography cases, the bench said, pointing out that the DG&IGP had stated in the affidavit that no incidents of child pornography were reported.
The court took a serious view of the police statement that no such incidents occurred and that no FIRs had been registered. The bench observed that state police chief should circulate the Lalita Kumari case judgement to all IPS officers and police stations across the state, and to IAS officers.
“Set your house in order. At least, the DG&IGP should issue warnings to the Superintendents of Police (SPs) who did not indicate any event of child pornography,” the bench told Additional Advocate-General Dhyan Chinnappa.
The bench said that a workshop was required for IPS and senior police officers on the Lalita Kumari judgement because they continue to work according to the old system. The entire system needs to be corrected, the bench said, suggesting the possibility of training from the Karnataka Judicial Academy. The bench also took exception to the approach of the ADGP (Crime) who directed the SPs across the state to conduct an inquiry into cases of child pornography and submit a report within a day. The ADGP’s order and the responses received from SPs indicated that none of them understood criminal law.
Child-friendly courts
The bench has asked Additional Advocate-General Dhyan Chinnappa to obtain instructions from the state government on the court’s request to the state government to provide sites to set up exclusive child-friendly courts across Karnataka.
The bench said that it has written to the state government to allot sites for 31 child-friendly courts in the state. These courts should be constructed on along the lines of the one in Saket, New Delhi. The state government must come out with a policy for the construction of child-friendly court like Saket, the bench said.