A single-judge bench of the Madras High Court was approached by a petitioner requesting the court to invoke its inherent powers under Section 482 of the CrPC to direct the police to stop harassing him under the guise of an enquiry/investigation. The Court directed the petitioners to appear and co-operate with the enquiry and issued some guidelines which the police must follow while conducting it, in light of the landmark Supreme Court judgment in Lalita Kumari vs the State of U.P.
Brief Facts:
The case of the petitioners was that the first petitioner's husband Narendran gave a false complaint against the petitioners. On that basis, the second respondent (the police) started unnecessarily harassing the petitioners. In the present case, it was the grievance of the petitioners that the respondent police has been harassing him under the guise of an enquiry/investigation and hence, he pleads before the court to invoke its inherent powers of this Court under Section 482 of Cr.P.C by way of this Criminal Original Petition which has been filed to direct the 2nd respondent not to harass the petitioners in view of the false complaint received from the said Narendran and his family members.
Contentions of the Respondents:
The respondents contended that Narendran gave a complaint against the petitioners alleging that the petitioners tried to murder him. On the basis of the complaint, a case in C.S.R.No.15 of 2023 was registered and enquiry is pending. Despite sending three summons for appearance for enquiry, the petitioners had not responded to the summons and hence police intervention was required.
Observations of the Court:
The court observed that the term “harassment” entails a very broad meaning and in order to determine what would amount to harassment by a police officer, the guidelines expounded by the Supreme Court in the case of Lalita Kumari vs. Government of Uttar Pradesh and others 2014(2) SCC (1) shall be looked into. Further, for the present case, the court issued the following guidelines:
- While summoning any person named in the complaint or any witness to the incident complained of, the police officer shall summon such person through a written summon under Section 160 Cr.P.C., specifying a particular date and time for appearing before them for such an enquiry/investigation.
- The respondent police is directed to serve summons mentioning the CSR number, date of complaint and the name of the complainant.
- The minutes of the enquiry shall be recorded in the general diary/station diary/daily diary of the police station.
- The police officer shall refrain from harassing persons called upon for enquiry/investigation.
With the aforementioned, Justice Chandrasekharan directed the petitioners to appear for the enquiry and co-operate with the enquiry.
Decision of the Court:
With the abovementioned observations and direction, the court disposed of the Criminal Original Petition.
Case Title: Priyadharshini and another vs State and another
Case No.: Crl.O.P.No.5307 of 2023
Coram: Mr. Justice G. Chandrasekharan
Advocate for the Petitioners: Mr. R. Thulasi
Advocate for the Respondent:Mr. S. Santhosh
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