Gujarat High Court
Kalaji Kanaji Thakor vs State Of Gujarat & 6 on 30 June, 2016
Author: Sonia Gokani
Bench: Sonia Gokani
R/SCR.A/4270/2016 ORDER
IN THE HIGH COURT OF GUJARAT AT AHMEDABAD
SPECIAL CRIMINAL APPLICATION (DIRECTION) NO. 4270 of 2016
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KALAJI KANAJI THAKOR....Applicant(s)
Versus
STATE OF GUJARAT & 6....Respondent(s)
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Appearance:
J K GANDHI, ADVOCATE for the Applicant(s) No. 1
PUBLIC PROSECUTOR for the Respondent(s) No. 1
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CORAM: HONOURABLE MS JUSTICE SONIA GOKANI
Date : 30/06/2016
ORAL ORDER
1. The petitioner before this Court is the owner of ancestral agriculture land bearing Survey No.99/3 situated at Village Nikol. He is the cosharer, a detail complaint has been sent by the petitioner to the Police Inspector, Nikol Police Station on 30.05.2016. According to him, no head is paid to the same. He has urged that this certificate of handwriting experts also held in favour of the petitioner.
2. The petitioner being aggrieved by non registration of the first information report on the basis of the complaint given in writing by him to the respondent No.4, herein approached Page 1 of 6 HC-NIC Page 1 of 6 Created On Sat Jul 02 03:18:38 IST 2016 R/SCR.A/4270/2016 ORDER this Hon'ble Court, who seeking relief of registration of FIR.
3. Learned Advocate appearing for the petitioner has also sought to rely on the handwriting expert's report and has urged that the concerned Police Inspector to take action.
4. Learned APP has also been heard. He has no objection to this Court directing on the line of dictum given by the Apex Court in the case of LALITA KUMARI V. STATE OF UTTAR PRADESH AND OTHERS reported in (2014) 2 SCC 1.
5. Having considered the submissions and having also examined the material on the record, the request of the petitioner deserves to be allowed. Let the details be examined by the concerned Officer on the line of decision of Apex Court rendered in the case of "LALITA KUMARI V. STATE OF UTTAR PRADESH AND OTHERS", reported in (2014) 2 SCC 1. It would be beneficial to regurgitate the relevant paragraph of the said decision, which reads as under :
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HC-NIC Page 2 of 6 Created On Sat Jul 02 03:18:38 IST 2016 R/SCR.A/4270/2016 ORDER "120. In view of the aforesaid discussion, we hold:
(i) Registration of FIR is mandatory under Section 154 of the Code, if the information discloses commission of a cognizable offence and no preliminary inquiry is permissible in such a situation.
(ii) If the information received does not disclose a cognizable offence but indicates the necessity for an inquiry, a preliminary inquiry may be conducted only to ascertain whether cognizable offence is disclosed or not.
(iii)If the inquiry discloses the commission of a cognizable offence, the FIR must be registered. In cases where preliminary inquiry ends in closing the complaint, a copy of the entry of such closure must be supplied to the first informant forthwith and not later than one week. It must disclose reasons in brief for closing the complaint and not proceeding further.
(iv) The police officer cannot avoid his duty of registering offence if cognizable offence is disclosed.
Action must be taken against erring officers who do not register the FIR if information received by him discloses a cognizable offence.
(v) The scope of preliminary inquiry is not to verify the veracity or Page 3 of 6 HC-NIC Page 3 of 6 Created On Sat Jul 02 03:18:38 IST 2016 R/SCR.A/4270/2016 ORDER otherwise of the information received but only to ascertain whether the information reveals any cognizable offence.
(vi) As to what type and in which cases preliminary inquiry is to be conducted will depend on the facts and circumstances of each case. The category of cases in which preliminary inquiry may be made are as under:
(a) Matrimonial disputes/ family disputes;
(b) Commercial offences;
(c) Medical negligence cases;
(d) Corruption cases;
(e) Cases where there is abnormal delay/laches in initiating criminal prosecution, for example, over 3 months delay in reporting the matter without satisfactorily explaining the reasons for delay;
The aforesaid are only illustrations and not exhaustive of all conditions which may warrant preliminary inquiry.
(vii)While ensuring and protecting the rights of the accused and the complainant, a preliminary inquiry should be made time bound and in any case it should not exceed 7 days. The fact of such delay and the causes of it must be reflected in the General Diary entry.
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R/SCR.A/4270/2016 ORDER
(viii) Since the General Diary/Station Diary/Daily Diary is the record of all information received in a police station, we direct that all information relating to cognizable offences, whether resulting in registration of FIR or leading to an inquiry, must be mandatorily and meticulously reflected in the said Diary and the decision to conduct a preliminary inquiry must also be reflected, as mentioned above."
6. Bearing in mind the aforementioned ratio laid down by the Apex Court, the respondent No.4, herein, shall look into the matter and lodge the first information report, if any, cognizable offence is made out; if not, for the limited purpose of knowing as to whether cognizable offence is revealed, a preliminary inquiry shall be conducted. The petitioner shall be communicated the brief reasons if eventually also, the respondent No.4 choses not to lodge the first information report. Such exercise shall be completed by the respondent No.4 at the earliest, but not later than ONE WEEK. The entire exercise shall be done at the earliest without further loss of time. The petitioner shall be at liberty to send all the documents including the report of Page 5 of 6 HC-NIC Page 5 of 6 Created On Sat Jul 02 03:18:38 IST 2016 R/SCR.A/4270/2016 ORDER the handwriting expert to the concerned authority through registered A.D., within 3 days of receipt of copy of this order.
7. The petition stands DISPOSED OF accordingly.
Direct Service is permitted.
(MS SONIA GOKANI, J.) Tuvar Page 6 of 6 HC-NIC Page 6 of 6 Created On Sat Jul 02 03:18:38 IST 2016