3 min readAhmedabadFeb 4, 2016 05:24 PM IST
First published on: Feb 4, 2016 at 05:24 PM IST
Two days after Gujarat government issued a circular asking its police not to lodge FIR against public servant in haste, a Congress leader on Thursday moved the high court challenging the circular on the ground that it is contrary to the code of criminal procedure (CrPC) and also against the law laid down by the Supreme Court.
The petition has been moved by Indravijaysinh Gohil who is a general secretary of Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC). Gohil has challenged the circular issued on February 2 directing police authorities not to lodge FIR against any public servant in a hurry and without properly verifying the allegations. The home department notification has stated that police should verify the facts before lodging the formal FIR. It said that such FIR affects the moral of the public servant and also damages the image of the government.
The petition mentions that the circular is “ex-facie illegal, arbitrary, ultravires and contrary to the provisions contained in section-154 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973. Besides, Gohil has also cited Supreme Court judgment saying that “it is bounden duty of the police officer to record FIR when he receives information which discloses commission of cognizable offence.”
Gohil has mentioned in the petition that the state government can’t change the judicial mandate given by the apex court. Therefore, the circular which is illegal and unconstitutional. The petition goes on to say that if the circular survives it will lead to “anarchy.” The petition is likely to come up for the hearing next week.
Citing example the petition says in case a minor girl has been raped by a public servant and she approaches police they will not lodge her complaint and instead she will be asked to wait for inquiry. “…by the time the police completes the preliminary investigation, the credible evidences would be destroyed and, therefore, at the end of the investigation of preliminary stage, the police would give lame duck excuse that while carrying out investigation for verification of commission of such offence or not, police could not get information and commission of commission of such offence since evidences have been destroyed by the time stage arrived at for recording of the FIR.”
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