HYDERABAD: The Hyderabad High Court on Monday directed the DGPs of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana states to issue instructions to all the district police officers in their respective states to implement the law laid down by the Supreme Court in registering complaints in cognisable and non-cognisable offences.
Justice P V Sanjay Kumar was passing this direction in a petition filed by V Mahindra and three others, challenging the action of the police in not registering their complaint.
The judge, in his order, said in view of the judgment of the Supreme Court in Lalita Kumari versus Government of Uttar Pradesh case, the registration of a FIR is mandatory under Section 154 CrPC, if the information discloses commission of a cognisable offence and no preliminary inquiry is permissible in such a situation. If the information received does not disclose a cognisable offence but indicates the necessity for an inquiry, a preliminary inquiry may be conducted only to ascertain whether a cognisable offence is disclosed or not. The preliminary inquiry should be made time-bound and in any case it should not exceed seven days and the police authorities are bound to follow the due procedure laid down in Section 155 CrPC. In any event, the police authorities must take suitable action in the matter expeditiously.
The Supreme Court has also said that since the general diary/station diary/ daily diary is the record of all information received in a police station, all information relating to cognisable offences, whether resulting in registration of a FIR or leading to an inquiry, must be reflected in the said dairy and the decision to conduct a preliminary inquiry must also be reflected therein.
Reiterating the Apex Court order, Justice Sanjay Kumar said that in cases where the preliminary inquiry ends in closing the complaint, a copy of the entry of such closure must be supplied to the first informant forthwith and not later than one week disclosing the reasons in brief for closing the complaint and not proceeding further.
While making it clear that a police officer cannot avoid his duty of registering a FIR if a cognisable offence is disclosed, the judge recalled that the Supreme Court held that action must be taken against the erring officers who do not register the FIR if information received by him discloses a cognisable offence.
The judge disposed of the case directing the DGPs of both the states to issue instructions in this regard to all the police officials in their respective states.