The Madras High Court Bench here on Thursday held that a Judicial Magistrate could not permit police to reinvestigate a criminal case after accepting a final report filed by the investigation officer expressing his inability to solve the crime.
A Division Bench comprising Justices A. Selvam and T. Mathivanan passed the ruling while answering a reference made by a single judge of the High Court on a petition filed by former Minister K.K.S.S.R. Ramachandran to quash a murder case booked against him.
According to the petitioner, Irukkankudi police in Sattur taluk of Virudhunagar district had in 2007 registered a case under Section 174 (duty of the police to enquire and report on suicide) of the Code of Criminal Procedure on the basis of the discovery of a body in Pappakudi village.
Since the case could not be solved for over three years, the investigation officer filed a final report before a Judicial Magistrate at Sattur on January 31, 2010, stating that the case could be closed as undetected. And the magistrate too closed the matter after recording the statement.
However, on March 30, 2012, the police filed a petition before the magistrate seeking permission to reinvestigate the case and obtained favourable orders. Subsequently, they filed a charge sheet against the former Minister and a few others under Section 302 (murder) and other provisions of the Indian Penal Code.
Immediately, Mr. Ramachandran moved the High Court with a plea to quash the charge sheet and a single judge of the High Court referred it to a Division Bench to decide if the magistrate had the authority to order reinvestigation after having accepted the first final report.
Writing the judgement for the Bench, Mr. Justice Selvam began answering the reference with a terse statement that, “a trite question which has already been settled by the apex court in various decisions has been raised once again in the present reference.”
He went on to point out that magistrates could only order further investigation if they were not satisfied with a final report and could not order reinvestigation of a case that had already been closed. He also stated that the police should have sought permission for reinvestigation from a higher judicial forum.
No comments:
Post a Comment