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Judgment
P.D. Desai, C.J.—The petitioner, who is a student prosecuting studies in the Post-graduate Centre of the Himachal Pradesh University and who is also the Joint Secretary of the Students� Central Association, complains in the petition that certain complaints lodged at the police station(s) in Shimla were not registered in accordance with law and seeks an appropriate order or direction to the effect that such complaints should be duly registered and investigated into in accordance with law. Several interim directions were issued during the pendency of the petition and, consequently, the learned Counsel for the petitioner stated to the Court that no other or further orders are required to be passed in the matter and that the petition be treated as disposed of accordingly.
One of the interim orders, which was made on December 20, 1984, required the District Superintendent of Police, Shimla, to file an affidavit in regard to the following amongst other matters:
(1) Whether Registers as required by the relevant provisions of the Punjab Police Rules are being maintained at these police stations ?
(2) Whether entries in accordance with law are being recorded in these Registers in regard to the alleged offences for which complaints are received?
In compliance of these orders, the District Superintendent of Police placed on record the following information by way of an affidavit:
(1) That the necessary Registers as prescribed under Punjab Police Rules applicable to Himachal Pradesh are being maintained in Police Stations, Sadar and West, Shimla, as well as other Police Stations also.
(2) That as per provisions of law and Police Rules necessary entries are being recorded in the relevant Registers in regard to alleged offences for which complaints are received. The following procedure is adopted to record informations received at the Police Station.-
(i) Information relating to commission of a cognizable offence is entered in Register No. 1 (F.I.R.) and Register No. 2 (Daily Diary) and other relevant Registers being maintained in the Police Station.
(ii) Information of miscellaneous matters and of non-cognizable nature, if given orally, is reduced into writing in the Daily Diary (Register No. 2).
(iii) Written complaints received at the Police Station which are of ambiguous nature and do not disclose commission of a specific offence are entered in Complaint Register for enquiry, as per Government instructions. If on preliminary enquiry, a cognizable offence is made out the matter is registered as per requirements of Section 154 Code of Criminal Procedure by making an entry in Register No. 1 and 2 etc. and further investigation is uudertaken.
Section 154 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, inter alia, provides that 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 (Underlining supplied). Section 155, inter alia, provides that when information is given to an officer-in-charge of a police station of the Commission within the limits of such station of a non-cognizable offence, he shall enter or cause to be entered the substance of the information in a book to be kept by such officer in such form as the State Government may prescribe in this behalf, and refer the informant to the Magistrate. (Underlining supplied).
Rule 22.45 in Chapter XXII of Volume-Ill of the Punjab Police Rules, 1934 (hereinafter referred to as the Rules), as applicable to Himachal Pradesh, prescribes the Registers to be maintained at each Police Station in the State. Amongst the Registers whichare required to be maintained accordingly at each Police Station are: (1) the First Information Report Register and, in certain stations, the Register of Petty Offences and (2) the Station Diary. Rule 22.47 of the rules, the marginal note whereof refers to Register No. 1, inter alia, provides that the orders regarding the First Information Report Register are contained in Rule 24.5 and regarding the Petty Offences Register in Rule 24.9. Rule 24.5 occurring in Chapter XXIV gives detailed instructions with regard to the maintenance of the First Information Report Register. Rule 22.48, the marginal note whereof refers to Register No, II inter alia, provides that the Daily Diary shall be maintained in accordance with Section 44 of the Police Act. Rule 22.49 refers to the matters to be entered in Register No. II.
From the statutory provisions referred to hereinabove, it is apparent that the law does not require or permit the maintenance of a Complaint Register at a Police Station in which complaints of �ambiguous nature� could be entered. The Government instructions to which reference is made in para (2) (iii) of the affidavit of the District Superintendent of Police also do not authorise the maintenance of such a Register. Those instructions, Annexure RA, were issued on December 5, 1977, by the Chief Secretary to the Government of Himachal Pradesh to all the Administrative Secretaries, Heads of Department, Deputy Commissioners and Superintendents of Police in the State stating, inter alia, that it had been observed that complaints received from the general public were not attended to promptly and that �in order to ensure prompt disposal of the complaints, it has been decided that all the administrative Secretaries, Heads of Departments, Deputy Commissioners, Superintendents of Police, should maintain at their level special complaint register, on the proforma attached, of public complaints received by them�. It is apparent that this circular cannot be read as authorising the maintenance of a Complaints Register at police stations in which the so-called complaints of ambiguous nature which do not disclose the commission of a specific offence could be entered. A Complaint Register can only be maintained at the level of the Superintendents of Police and that too for the purposes of entering complaints of a general nature received from the public at large which may not have any concern or connection with or bearing upon the commission of an offence or crime.
Under the circumstances, the Court issues the following directions with regard to the maintenance of Registers at the Police Stations in the State for the purposes of making entries therein relating to the alleged commission of an offence or crime:
(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 in the First Information Report Register (Register No. 1) maintained at each police station in the State under Rule 22.45 (1) of the rules;
(2) The substance of such information shall be entered in the Station Diary (Register No. 2) maintained at each police station in the State under Rule 22.45 (2) of the rules.
(3) The substance of every information relating to the commission of a non-cognizable offence shall be entered in Register No. 2 referred to above;
(4) The provisions of Chapter XII of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 and those of Chapter XXIV of the Punjab Police Rules, 1934, in so far as they are applicable for the aforesaid purposes, shall be strictly followed throughout the State by all the Police Station Officers or their subordinates while making entries in the relevant Registers.
(5) The maintenance, if any, of Register No. 3 stated to be maintained at the police stations for the purposes of entering written complaints of an ambiguous nature, which do not disclose the commission of a specific offence, in the purported compliance of the Government instructions dated December 5, 1977, issued by the Chief Secretary, Annexure RA, shall be forthwith discontinued at the police station level in the State, since such Register, if any, is required to be maintained at the level of the Administrative Secretaries, Heads of Department, Deputy Commissioners and Superintendents of Police, for the purposes of entering complaints of a general nature received from the general public, and also because such a Register cannot be used in accordance with law for the purposes of registering complaints which have any direct or indirect, proximate or remote bearing on the commission of an offence. Such Register, if any, shall be maintained only at the level of the Superintendent of Police in the State;
(6) No other Register not authorised by law shall also be maintained at the Police Stations for the purposes of making entries therein relating to the alleged commission of an offence or crime.
The Secretary (Home) and the Inspector General of Police will forthwith communicate these orders to all the Superin-endents/Deputy Superintendents of Police throughout the State for immediate compliance. The Inspector General of Police will instruct the Superintendents of Police/Deputy Superintendents of Police in each District to ensure that these orders are duly complied with by all the police station officers under their control and obtain written compliance report from the Superintendents/Deputy Superintendents within a period of four weeks with regard to the discontinuance of Register No. 3 or any such or similar Register at the police stations under their charge. Any wilful breach of these orders will render all concerned liable to be proceeded against in the contempt jurisdiction.
The writ petition stands disposed of in light of the above directions.
Dasti copy on usual terms.