“Police can't begin probe without registering plaint”

High Court Bench expresses surprise over statement of DSP

The Madras High Court Bench here on Friday disapproved of the practice of policemen investigating into complaints relating to commission of cognisable offences (in which the police could act even without court orders) without even registering First Information Reports (FIR) and arriving at conclusions that there was no substance in the complaints.

Disposing of a writ petition, Justice K.K. Sasidharan pointed out that the authority of the police to conduct preliminary enquiries before registration of FIRs was now referred to a Larger Bench of the Supreme Court. Nevertheless, the law of the land as of now was that every complaint making out a cognisable offence must be registered before commencing the investigation.

The present petition was filed and argued by a 67-year-old lawyer and social activist P. Rathinam seeking a direction to the Othakadai police station here to register a case against some of the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) cadres on charges of assaulting him and another lawyer V. Murugan when the two were whitewashing a wall outside the High Court Bench campus on September 1, 2010.

The petitioner claimed that he was whitewashing the wall only to paint graffiti with regard to the murder of two Dalits in Chennagarampatti near here in 1992. However, the VCK cadres objected to it and assaulted the duo besides threatening to do away with them. A complaint as well as a counter complaint was lodged with the police by both the parties but no case was registered.

Filing a counter affidavit to the writ petition, the Oomachikulam Deputy Superintendent of Police said that the police did not register any case as investigations conducted by it and the account of eye witnesses to the alleged occurrence revealed that nothing serious took place at the relevant point of time. He also said that the petitioner had exaggerated the incident which did not make out a cognisable offence.

Not in agreement with such a stand taken by the DSP, Mr. Justice Sasidharan said that a bare reading of the complaint clearly made out cognisable offences warranting registration of FIR. Further wondering how could an officer in the rank of a DSP could make such statements, he directed the Othakadai police to register a case forthwith on the basis of a complaint lodged by Mr. Murugan.