Courts should acknowledge filing of final reports by giving CNR numbers: Madras High Court

64,027 final reports have been filed before jurisdictional courts and acknowledged: IGP

Inspector General of Police (South Zone) Asra Garg on Tuesday submitted a status report to the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court stating that 64,027 final reports had been filed before jurisdictional courts in southern districts in two months and they had been duly acknowledged following a High Court direction passed in June.

He said only 24,920 of the 64,027 final reports filed by the police had been taken on file so far, and Case Number Record (CNR) acknowledgement had been given only to 62.28% cases. For the remaining cases, only manual acknowledgement had been given.

Taking cognisance of the status report filed in a contempt case, Justice G.R. Swaminathan directed that whenever final reports were filed, the court concerned should acknowledge them by giving CNR numbers.

If the CNR number was not issued due to infrastructure deficiency, the issuance of manual acknowledgement would be brought to the notice of the Principal District Judge concerned, the judge said.

Further, he said the manual acknowledgements issued so far must be expeditiously digitised. If manual acknowledgements were continued to be given, the Superintendents of Police should apprise the Principal District and Sessions Judges concerned of the situation.

The courts should adhere to Rule 25 of the Criminal Rules of Practice, 2019. If the final report was free of defects, it should be taken on file within three days. If there were defects, the police should be notified. If the defects were not rectified by them, action should be taken as per Rule 25 (6), the judge said.

If there was non-compliance of the direction, it must be expeditiously brought to the notice of the Principal District Judge/ Chief Judicial Magistrate by the SP concerned, the judge said.

“I place on record my sincere appreciation for the humongous efforts taken by Shri. Asra Garg, I.P.S. I must also appreciate Ms. R. Arulmozhiselvi, Member, e-Committee, Supreme Court of India/ District Judge, for coordinating with the police department to universalise the CNR system...,” the judge said.

The court directed the IGP to file a further status report and posted the case to November 1.