Chennai: Deprecating the practice of issuing CSR by the police, the Madras high court has said a decision should be taken by the police officials either to register FIR immediately or after considering the contents of the complaint as to whether cognizable offence is made out or not or after conducting enquiry following the dictum laid down in "Lalithakumari case".
A division bench comprising Justices N.Kirubakaran and Abdul Quddhose made the observation while passing an interim order on a HCP filed by a person, whose daughter went missing from February 14, 2019.
Noticing that the police officers are not registering FIR immediately when a complaint is received and are not deciding as to whether the contents of the complaint would make out cognizable offence or not, the bench said it is seen that when a complaint is received, mechanically, a CSR is being issued. There is no provision shown to this court regarding the issuance of CSR by the police officials. This kind of practice of issuing CSR should be deprecated, the bench added.
The bench said in this case, it was very shocking to note that though the complaint has been received on February 14 till date, FIR has not been registered and enquiry or investigation has not been conducted by the police officer and nothing has been informed to the petitioner. "It is nothing but a deliberate failure on the part of the police officer which has to be deprecated". The police authorities should understand the pain and suffering of the parents and other relatives of missing persons, especially the girls. If the children of the officials or their relatives go missing, whether the officers would keep quiet without making any effort? "Probably, they would show interest only if prominent people go missing", the bench added.
The bench said it was also seen that even though the case has been filed before this court on June 7 and it has been numbered yesterday and prosecution copy has been received by the Public Prosecutor's office and a computer message has been sent to the Station House Officer, the government advocate submitted that so far there was no information received from the police officer in this case. "It is a girl missing case which has been reported on February 14 and it is a very serious issue. Inspite of the seriousness, no action has been taken by the police. Hence inspector of police, Tiruchengode police station is directed to appear before this court and file an affidavit as to why he has not registered the FIR for the past four months and what is the action taken pursuant to the complaint given by the petitioner", the bench added and posted to June 17, further hearing of the case.
