Madhya Pradesh High Court: S.A. Dharmadhikari, J., dismissed the instant petition filed under Articles 226 and 227.
The facts of the case follow as, the respondent, who was a person of criminal antecedents, had come with his relatives armed with Pharsas and Guns to the petitioner and threatened to eliminate him and his family when the petitioner demanded balance amount of the sale proceeds of land sold to the respondent by father of the petitioner.
The petitioner submitted that, he had approached the Police Station but his report was not recorded, being aggrieved by that a representation had also been made to the Superintendent of Police for taking action against the miscreants but no action had been taken. Therefore, the petitioner requested the Court that a writ of mandamus may be issued to the Superintendent of Police to decide the said representation and take action against the respondent and also provide adequate protection to the petitioner from the respondent.
The counsel for the State, Abhishek Singh Bhadoriya argued that, the relief sought by the petitioner could not be granted in view of the fact that the petitioner had an alternative remedy of filing complaint before the Magistrate under Section 156(3) of the CrPC and the same was not availed by him.
The Court, relied on Sakiri Vasu v. State Of U.P., (2008)2 SCC 409, wherein, the Supreme Court held that, “if a person has a grievance that the police station is not registering his FIR under Section 154 CrPC, then he can approach the Superintendent of Police under Section 154(3) CrPC by an application in writing. Even if that does not yield any satisfactory result, it is open to the aggrieved person to file an application under Section 156 (3) CrPC before the learned Magistrate concerned the Magistrate can direct the FIR to be registered and also can direct a proper investigation to be made. The Magistrate can also monitor the investigation to ensure a proper investigation.”
In view of the above, the Court dismissed the petition stating that, the High Court should discourage the practice of filing a writ petition or petition under Section 482 CrPC, simply because a person has a grievance that his FIR has not been registered by the police, or after being registered, proper investigation has not been done. For this grievance, the remedy lies under Sections 36 and 154(3) before the police officers concerned, and if that is of no avail, under Section 156(3) CrPC before the Magistrate or by filing a criminal complaint under Section 200 CrPC and not by filing a writ petition or a petition under Section 482 CrPC. However, the Court further directed that, if the petitioner approaches the Magistrate, the Magistrate concerned shall proceed in accordance with law including the precedents enumerated hereinabove. [Bharat Singh Gurjar v. State of M.P., 2020 SCC OnLine MP 2924, decided on 22-12-2020]
