R.V.Santhanaraj v. The Commissioner Of Police
BEFORE THE MADURAI BENCH OF MADRAS HIGH COURT DATED: 31.01.2020
CORAM:
THE HONOURABLE MR.JUSTICE A.D.JAGADISH CHANDIRA Crl.O.P.[MD] No.1176 of 2020 R.V.Santhanaraj : Petitioner vs.
1.The Commissioner of Police, Thoothukudi City.
2.The Inspector of Police, South Police Station, Thoothukudi.
3.J.Maria Antony Radhisha : Respondents PRAYER: Criminal Original Petition filed under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure directing the second respondent not to harass the petitioner under the guise of enquiry based on an information preferred by the third respondent. For Petitioner : Mr.S.Krishnan For Respondents : Mr.S.Chandrasekar, Additional Public Prosecutor (for R1 and R2)
O R D E R
This petition is filed seeking a direction to the second respondent not to harass the petitioner under the guise of enquiry based on an information preferred by the third respondent. 2.When the matter is called today, the learned Additional Public Prosecutor appearing for the respondents 1 and 2 would submit that the petitioner has given a complaint to the District Superintendent of Police. Based on which, enquiry has been conducted in C.No.07/B3PS/GMP/TUT/2020. During the enquiry, the respondent police had received the secret information from the Special Branch stating that there is a dispute between the petitioner and his wife Rathisa and that they are separated and the petitioner apprehending that one Samsan and one Kabildev, who is an Advocate, are the reason for the dispute, is roaming around with
weapons to waylay them and the respondents have summoned the petitioner in respect of enquiry regarding the same, other than that the respondents have not harassed him.
3.Heard the learned counsel for the petitioner and the learned Additional Public Prosecutor appearing for the respondent police. 4.It is the grievance of the petitioner that the respondent police has been harassing him under the guise of an enquiry/investigation and hence, has invoked the inherent powers of this Court under Section 482 of Cr.P.C.
5.
An enquiry into a non cognizable offence or a cognizable offence is the unfettered powers of the Investigation Officers so long as the power to investigate/enquire into these offences are legitimately exercised within the frame work of Chapter XII of the Code of Criminal Procedure. Though the Code of Criminal Procedure empowers the Magistrate to be a guardian in all the stages of the police investigation, there is no power envisaging him to interfere with the actual investigation or the mode of investigation. It is in this background that numerous petitions complaining of harassment are being reported and filed before this Court seeking for directions to refrain the police officials from harassing the persons named in a complaint.
6.
This Court, exercising its power under Section 482 of the Criminal Procedure Code normally would not interfere with the investigation conducted by a police officer. Nevertheless, it would also not turn a blind eye to instances of harassment by the police under the guise of investigation is brought to its notice. 7.
In the present case in hand, the petitioner has complained of harassment by the police based on a complaint and seek for this Court's intervention by way of a direction. 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. 8.
In order to circumvent such situations, the following guidelines are issued:
a)While summoning any person named in the complaint or any witness to the incident complained of, the police officer shall summon such person through a written summon under Section 160 Cr.P.C., specifying a particular date and time for appearing before them for such an enquiry/investigation.
b) The respondent police is directed to serve summons mentioning the CSR number, date of complaint and the name of the complainant.
c)The minutes of the enquiry shall be recorded in the general diary/station diary/daily diary of the police station. dThe police officer shall refrain himself or herself from harassing persons called upon for enquiry/investigation.
e)The guidelines stipulated for preliminary enquiry or registration of FIR by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in Lalita Kumari Vs. Government of Uttar Pradesh and others [2014 (2) SCC (1)] shall be strictly adhered to.
9.With the above observations and direction, the Criminal Original Petition stands disposed of.
Sd/- Assistant Registrar () // True Copy // / /2020 Sub Assistant Registrar(CS) To 1.The Commissioner of Police, Thoothukudi City.
2.The Inspector of Police, South Police Station, Thoothukudi.
3.The Additional Public Prosecutor, Madurai Bench of Madras High Court, Madurai.
+1 CC to M/s.S.KRISHNAN, Advocate ( SR-4368[F] dated 03/02/2020 ) Crl.O.P.[MD] No.1176 of 2020 31.01.2020 skn SDS (18.02.2020) 3P-5C