Dr. M.G. Gopal vs State by Central Police (CCB). Criminal Revision Petition 34/2018 and connected matter decided on 18 January 2021.
Judgement Link: http://judgmenthck.kar.nic.in/judgmentsdsp/bitstream/123456789/359830/1/CRLRP34-18-18-01-2021.pdf
Held: 14. What constitutes a police station has been defined in Section 2(s) of the Code, which reads as under:- “2(2): “police station” means any post or place declared generally or specially by the State Government, to be a police station, and includes any local area specified by the State Government in this behalf.”
15. As per Section 2(o) of the Code, “officer in charge of a police station” includes, when the officer in charge of the police station is absent from the station- house or unable from illness or other cause to perform his duties, the police officer present at the station-house who is next in rank to such officer and is above the rank of constable or, when the State Government so directs, any other police officer so present.”
16. On going through the scheme of the Code, Section 173(2) of the Code contemplates submission of report of investigation. From plain reading of the said provision it is evident that it is the officer in-charge of a police station who is authorized to forward and submit the report in the prescribed form to the jurisdictional Magistrate to take cognizance. The words used in Section 173(2) are “shall forward” which themselves give the meaning that it is the officer in-charge of the police station to file the final report. Though it is contended by the learned SPP-I that under Section 36 of the Code, the superior officer of the police station may exercise the same powers, as could be seen from the said Section, it is the police officers superior in rank to an officer-in- charge of the police station have been conferred with such power as that of the officer in-charge of the police station. But in the case on hand, CCB police are not the officers superior in rank to an officer in-charge of the police station in the local jurisdiction. In that light, the contention which has been taken up by the learned SPP-I is not acceptable. It is even not much denied that the CCB is not a police station by itself.
17. When CCB is not a police station then admittedly the final report filed by CCB which is an Investigating Agency is not in contemplation with the provisions of Section 173(2) of the Code.
18..…As per Section 2(s) of the Code the State Government has to declare either generally or specially any post or place to be a police station, but no such declaration is forthcoming before this Court. In that light, admittedly the investigation has been done by the CCB and it is he who had submitted the report in terms of Section 173 of the Code and in view of the discussion made by me above, he cannot be considered to be an officer-in- charge. In that light, the trial Court ought not to have taken cognizance on the report submitted by the CCB.
Compiled by S. Basavaraj, Advocate, Daksha Legal.
Daksha Legal 