HARI SINGH Vs. STATE OF U P
LAWS(SC)-2006-6-10
SUPREME COURT OF INDIA
Decided on June 16,2006

HARI SINGH Appellant
VERSUS
STATE OF UTTAR PRADESH Respondents

JUDGEMENT

Arijit Pasayat, J. - (1.) This petition was filed under Article 32 of the Constitution of India, 1950 (in short the Constitution) is for a direction to conduct enquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation (in short the CBI) into the murder of one Yashvir Singh, son of the petitioner. The allegation is that though First Information Report (in short the FIR) has been lodged with the police to the effect that said Yashvir Singh has been murdered and has not committed suicide, because of the pressure of some influential people, police has not taken any positive steps, and on the contrary the petitioner is being harassed and threatened by certain persons. As culled out from the petition, said Yashvir Singh was posted as Additional Commissioner of Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh and was found dead in his official residence on 19th January, 2006. Petitioner made a grievance that the police officials in collusion with some relatives - more particularly in-laws of the deceased- Yashvir Singh are projecting it as a case of suicide. It is stated that the petitioner has made several representations to various authorities, but without any avail. It is pointed out that the Superintendent of Police had directed the officer-in-charge of the concerned police station to enquire into the matter in view of the allegations made by the petitioner. But it is the grievance of the petitioner that no action has been taken purportedly on the basis of the pressure exercised by some influential people who were inimical to the deceased though they are related to him. In essence grievance is that no action is being taken on the First Information Report lodged by the petitioner.
(2.) Chapter XII of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (in short the Code) relates to " Information to the Police and their Powers to Investigate". Section 154 reads as follows : Information in cognizable cases.- (1) Every information relating to the commission of a cognizable offence, if given orally to an officer-in-charge of a police station, shall be reduced to writing by him or under his direction, and be read over to the informant; and every such information, whether given in writing or reduced to writing as aforesaid, shall be signed by the person giving it, and the substance thereof shall be entered in a book to be kept by such officer in such form as the State Government may prescribe in this behalf. (2) A copy of the information as recorded under sub-section (1) shall be given forthwith, free of cost, to the informant. (3) Any person, aggrieved by a refusal on the part of an officer-in-charge of a police station to record the information referred to in sub-section (1) may send the substance of such information, in writing and by post, to the Superintendent of Police concerned who, if satisfied that such information discloses the commission of a cognizable offence, shall either investigate the case himself or direct an investigation to be made by any police officer subordinate to him, in the manner provided by this Code, and such officer shall have all the powers of an officer-in-charge of the police station in relation to that offence.
(3.) Section 156 deals with "Police officers power to investigate cognizable cases" and the same reads as follows : (1) Any officer-in-charge of a police station may, without the order of a Magistrate, investigate any cognizable case which a Court having jurisdiction over the local area within the limits of such station would have power to inquire into or try under the provisions of Chapter XIII. (2) No proceeding of a police officer in any such case shall at any stage be called in question on the ground that the case was one which such officer was not empowered under this section to investigate. (3) Any Magistrate empowered under section 190 may order such an investigation as above-mentioned. ;


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