HC raps cops for poorly maintained case diaries, seeks affidavit from DGP
The court was inspecting a case diary of an investigating officer from Varthak police station and noticed that there was no number or date on its first page, it was maintained in a casual manner, typed in a ledger paper and kept in a yellow coloured plastic file with pages 1-13 being in loose sheets
MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court reprimanded the police for failing to maintain case diaries in a proper format as mandated by law. It ordered Rashmi Shukla, the Director General of Police (DGP), to file a personal affidavit explaining whether the provisions of law enacted by Parliament were binding and mandatory on the Maharashtra police personnel or if they are to be retained only in the books of law.
A division bench of justices Ajey Gadkari and Rajesh Patil on Monday was hearing a petition pertaining to a dispute between a licensee and licensor of rented premises where one party accused the other of misappropriating its furniture. The judges were inspecting the case diary when they noticed that it was not maintained in a proper format. It also contained loose sheets of paper despite statutory requirements and several circulars having been issued by the DGP’s office.
“The case diary is maintained in an absolutely casual manner and loose leaf in a yellow-coloured plastic file. The first page of the case diary has no number or date. It is typed on a ledger paper. Pages no.1 to 13 are in loose sheets,” the court observed after going through the case diary.
The court censured an assistant police inspector attached to the Vartak Nagar police station in Thane for failing to conduct a panchnama of the scene even 13 months after a First Information Report was registered.
“The directions issued by the office of the Director General of Police are not percolated to the lower rank of police personnel, and they are blatantly violating the directions issued by the topmost authority of the police department. This is unconscionable and unpardonable. It appears to us that in a disciplined police force, the police personnel themselves are not following the discipline and are not following the mandatory directions issued by the office of the Director General of Police,” the court observed.
The court also directed the DGP to initiate action against an investigating officer from Vartak Nagar police station for committing a breach of provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), (1972). The investigating officer had also violated various circulars about case diary maintenance issued by the DGP on December 6, 2018, September 16, 2021, and February 12, 2024. Section 172 of the CrPC (1972) mandates that a police officer investigating a crime must record day-to-day proceedings of the investigation in the case diary, along with details such as the time at which the information reached him, the time at which he began and closed his investigation, the place or places visited by him, and statement of the circumstances ascertained through his investigation. According to this procedural law, the case diary is supposed to be a paginated book that the investigating officer maintains.
“As per our record, the last such circular was issued on February 12, 2024. There is also a circular dated February 11, 2011, issued by the Home Department, Government of Maharashtra, directing all the investigating officers to follow the amended Section 172 (1-B) of the CrPC,” the court noted while stating that police personnel in the State of Maharashtra must follow the mandate of law.
