Bombay HC raps police for not maintaining case diaries as per law

The Bombay High Court has raised a serious concern over the casual manner in which the police were maintaining case diaries at police stations and directed the Maharashtra Director General of Police DGP to look into the issue reported news agency PTIBombay HC raps police HC noted that it regularly came across matters where case diaries were not being maintainedA division bench of Justices A S Gadkari and Shyam Chandak in its order dated January 16 noted that it regularly came across matters where the case diaries were not being maintained by the police as mandated by law reported PTIThe bench was hearing a petition filed by a man seeking direction to his wife an Uzbekistan national to produce their onemonthold daughter The man in his plea claimed that his wife and her parents were absconding with the infant reported PTIThe court was informed that the woman her parents and the baby were traced to a friends residence in Amritsar Punjab The petitioners wife was arrested and later released on bail reported PTIAdvocate Padma Shelatkar appearing for the petitioners wife informed the court that the arrest was made by violating the provisions of law and no notice under section 41A of the Criminal Procedure Code CrPC was served before the arrest reported PTIUnder Section 41A the police need to first issue a notice to the accused person directing him or her to appear to give a statement after which if the police deem it fit then the arrest should be madeThe bench then perused the police investigation papers including the case diaryBombay HC raps police HC noted that the case diary was maintained in utter defiance of section 1721B of the CrPCThe bench noted that the case diary was maintained in utter defiance of section 1721B of the CrPC which stated that the diary containing the daytoday entry of the proceedings in the probe has to be duly paginated reported PTIIt further said that several orders were passed by the high court and circulars issued by the Maharashtra DGP directing investigating officers to maintain a case diary in all cases as mandated by law reported PTIIt appears that the directions issued by the DGP have not percolated to the lower rank of police officers who are conducting investigations at the ground level and the said circulars have found their place in the files of the police stations the court said reported PTIBombay HC raps police HC said it was at pains to issue such directionsThe bench said it was at pains to issue such directions but it was regularly coming across such violationsWe expect the DGP to imbibe upon all the police officers the seriousness in following the directions issued by the highest police authority in the state and to not take such directions lightly andor casually the court said reported PTIThe directions have been issued to follow and not to violate as per the whims of the investigating officer the court said adding that it expects the DGP to adopt stringent remedial measures reported PTIAccording to us this is a serious matter of concern The case diary in the present case is maintained not only in the form of loose sheets but these were also scattered throughout the file it said reported PTIThe court directed the DGP to look into the matter personally and adopt necessary legal action against the concerned police officerThe bench said it was also perplexed to note that the notice under section 41A of the CrPC was not served to the accused person the petitioners wife and was served to a relative of a coaccused in Punjab reported PTIThe bench said this was not in accordance with the law and that notice under section 41A can only be served to the accusedWe are unable to accept such a novel idea of service of notice adopted by the investigating police officer This is a clear breach of section 41A by the concerned officer and requires serious attention by the highest authority of the police department ie the Director General of Police Maharashtra the court said reported PTIThe bench said it would hear the matter for compliance on February 13With inputs from PTI