SEETA RAM vs State Ss — 2025 SCMR 2028 SUPREME-COURT

Fields are extracted from the reported citation and judgment text. Where a detail is not stated in the record, it is not shown.

SEETA RAM VS State Ss. 154 & 173---First Information Report, registration of---Criminal investigation in cognizable offence---Principle---Investigation before registration of FIR---Effect---Registration of a case under section 154, Cr.P.C. cannot be refused nor delayed when information relating to commission of a cognizable offence has been given to or received by officer incharge of a police station---Registration of case is first step to put criminal proceedings in motion and to enable officer incharge of a police station to embark upon course of investigation strictly in accordance with the mandate set out in Criminal Procedure Code, 1898---Registration of case, i.e. FIR itself, is not a substantive piece of evidence unless its contents are affirmed on oath by its maker while entering witness box and being subjected to cross examination---Every case registered under section 154, Cr.P.C. and the ensuing investigation ends up with filing a report under section 173 of Cr.P.C.---Magistrate or a Court has no authority to interfere in the process of investigation nor to guide and direct investigation officer how or in what manner to investigate a case---Supervision of a Magistrate at each stage, from registration of a case till filing of the report under section 173, Cr.P.C. is to ensure that powers vested in an officer incharge of police station or any other authorized person are not abused for mala fide and extraneous reasons nor that the liberty, freedoms and rights of an accused are violated in disregard to the scheme contemplated under Criminal Procedure Code, 1898---Entry of a cognizable offence in Daily Diary, for instance, rather than prescribed book kept for the purposes of section 154, Cr.P.C. enables an officer incharge of police station to circumvent and disregard mandatory provisions of Criminal Procedure Code, 1898 by avoiding external supervisory check of a competent Magistrate contemplated there under---Such investigation gives an opportunity to an officer incharge of a police station to abuse powers without any external Magisterial check expressly provided under the scheme of Criminal Procedure Code, 1898.

SEETA RAM vs State Ss — 2025 SCMR 2028 SUPREME-COURT

Case information

Judgment text as reported

Other judgments reported in 2025 SCMR