Stating that investigation of an offence is a field exclusively reserved for police officers, the High Court dismissed a public interest litigation seeking a transparent and practical mechanism to acknowledge individuals who join the police investigation in criminal cases.
“Investigation of an offence is the field exclusively reserved for police officers, whose powers in that field are unfettered, so long as legitimately exercised and not abused. Therefore, we do not find any ground to entertain this petition filed as a PIL, and dismiss the same,” said a Bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw.
The PIL was filed on the basis that sometimes the police arrest people on false grounds that they did not join the investigation.
And, an acknowledgement would prevent any further harassment.
To this, the court said that some aberrations made by police officers were not reason enough for the court to rewrite the CRPC. And furthermore, specific grievances against a police official could be addressed by remedies available under the CRPC itself.
The court observed that there were already enough mechanisms to acknowledge that a person had been summoned by the police.
“We may also notice that as far as the city of Delhi is concerned, all the police stations have CCTVs and thus the presence of any person summoned to the police station is recorded.”
