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Judgment
YASHVIR SINGH RATHOR, J. (Oral)
The present petition has been filed under Section 528 of BNSS, 2023 and under Article 226 of the Constitution of India for issuance of a writ in the nature of mandamus for directing the official respondents to provide status report on the online written complaint dated 14.10.2025 registered by the petitioners through the Punjab Police Citizen’s Portal (Annexure P-1) and to take appropriate action including registration of FIR under the relevant provisions of BNSS, 2023 and further to protect the lives and liberty of the petitioners from the hands of unknown persons.
Upon notice, Mr. Jasjit Singh Rattu, DAG, Punjab, accepts notice on behalf of the respondent-State.
I have heard learned counsel for the petitioners as well as learned State counsel.
Hon’ble Supreme Court while relying upon (2008) 2 SCC 409, Sakiri Vasu v. State of U.P. in SLP (Crl.) No.1088 of 2026, Sujal Vishwas Attavar and another Vs. The State of Maharashtra and others, decided vide judgment dated 04.05.2026, has held as under:-
“7.Keeping in view the above exposition of law, we find that the extraordinary jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution of India ought not to have been invoked when alternative equally efficacious statutory remedies were available. If a person has a grievance that his FIR has not been registered by the police, or having been registered, proper investigation is not being conducted, then the remedy does not ordinarily lie in invoking the writ jurisdiction in the first instance, but in seeking recourse to the statutory framework, unless of course the urgency of the circumstances warrant otherwise.
8.The Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita 2023 (erstwhile Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973) provides a structured sequential mechanism for initiating criminal prosecution. The statutory framework contemplates that information relating to the commission of a cognizable offence is first placed before the officer-in-charge of the police station and an FIR is registered under Section 173(1) BNSS. In the event of refusal to register the FIR, recourse lies before the jurisdictional Superintendent of Police under Section 173(4) BNSS and, thereafter, before the Magistrate, under Section 175(3) BNSS.”
The prayer of the petitioners is to take action against the accused and to register the FIR against them. However, the petitioners have the remedy to approach the Area Magistrate by moving an appropriate application under BNSS, 2023. As such, no further action is called for in the present petition.
However, Respondent No.2-Senior Superintendent of Police, Hoshiarpur, is directed to look into the complaint and decide the same on the basis of threat perception felt by the petitioners and if the threat perception is found to be true, then the protection as admissible in law shall be provided. In case, the concerned SSP is of the view that no protection is required, then a speaking order shall be passed and communicated to the petitioners. However, this order shall not be construed as a direction to register FIR.
In view of the above, the present petition is disposed of.
Pending miscellaneous application(s), if any, shall also stand disposed of.