CHENNAI: Directing the Tamil Nadu police to not harass anyone called for inquiries, the Madras High Court asked it to strictly follow the Supreme Court’s guidelines for holding preliminary inquiries.
“... the guidelines stipulated for preliminary enquiry by the Supreme Court in Lalita Kumari vs Government of Uttar Pradesh and others shall be strictly adhered to,” Justice AD Jagadish Chandira directed police recently while passing orders on a petition filed by a Chennai woman on police harassment.
While summoning anyone named in the complaint or any witness to the incident complained of, the police officer should use a written summon mentioning the CSR number, date of the complaint, and the name of the complainant.
They should also specify the date and time to appear before the officer, the judge said. He also directed the police to record the minutes of the inquiry in the general/station/daily diary of the police station. The petitioner, P Vijayalakshmi of Sholavaram, prayed for orders to restrain police from harassing her in the name of inquiries into a complaint lodged against her by D Sampathkumar.
The judge said an inquiry into cognizable or non-cognizable offence is the unfettered powers of the investigation officers as long as the power to investigate/inquire into these offences is legitimately exercised within the framework of Chapter XII of the CrPC.
Even though the high court would normally stay away from interfering with an inquiry, it would also not turn a blind eye to instances of harassment by police under the guise of inquiry or investigation, justice Jagadish Chandira said.
Referring to the case in hand, he said the petitioner complained of harassment by police. “The term harassment by itself has a very wide meaning and hence, what could be harassment to the petitioner may not be the same to the police officer,” he said.