Madras High Court lays down guidelines to prevent harassment complaints against T.N. police personnel

Madras High Court. File
| Photo Credit: K. Pichumani

The Madras High Court has issued guidelines for Tamil Nadu police personnel to prevent complaints of harassment during the investigation of criminal cases.

Justice G.K. Ilanthiraiyan has ordered that henceforth, the police must summon any individual for inquiry only by issuing a written notice under Section 179 of the Bharatiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS).

The judge ordered that the written summons/notice must specify the date and time when the individual concerned — be it a suspect or witness — must appear before the police officer concerned for inquiry.

Further, the minutes of the inquiry should be recorded in the general diary/station diary/daily diary of the police station concerned and personnel must refrain from meting out any kind of ill-treatment to the suspect/witness, he ordered.

The judge also ordered that the police must scrupulously follow the guidelines issued by the Supreme Court in 2014, in the famous Lalita Kumari’s case, with respect to procedures to be followed during preliminary inquiry and registration of First Information Report (FIR).

The orders were passed while disposing of a petition filed by M. Raji to restrain an Inspector of Police attached to the Avadi Central Crime Branch from harassing the petitioner and his family members in connection with an immovable property dispute.

The petitioner’s counsel M.T. Arunan told the court that the police have no authority to interfere with a civil dispute and hence, they must be restrained from harassing individuals in connection with such disputes.

Observing that numerous petitions were being filed in the High Court to restrain police personnel from harassing litigants, the judge said, courts would generally not interfere with investigations conducted by the police but it could also not turn a blind eye to complaints of harassment.

An enquiry into a non-cognisable offence or a cognisable offence falls within the unfettered powers conferred on the investigating officers, as long as the power to investigate/conduct inquiry into these offences were legitimately exercised within the framework of Chapter XIII of the BNSS, 2023. 

“Though the Sanhita empowers the Judicial Magistrates to be a guardian in all the stages of the police investigation, there is no power envisaging the Magistrates to interfere with the actual investigation or the mode of investigation. It is in this background that numerous petitions complaining of harassment are being filed before this court,” the judge wrote.

He went to state that the term ‘harassment’ by itself had a very broad meaning and hence, what could be harassment to the petitioner may not be so for the police officer. Therefore, it was necessary to frame certain guidelines for the police personnel on this issue, the judge added.