Criminal Law : Proper Investigation and Role of Courts in Monitoring Investigation

Criminal Law : Proper Investigation and Role of Courts in Monitoring Investigation

The case of Sakiri Vasu v. State of UP [2007] GCtR 6365 (SC) has held that even if an FIR has been registered and even if the police has made the investigation, or is actually making the investigation, which the aggrieved person feels is not proper, such a person can approach the Magistrate under Section 156(3) of Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, and if the Magistrate is satisfied he can order a proper investigation and take other suitable steps and pass such order orders as he thinks necessary for ensuring a proper investigation.

Even if that does not yield any satisfactory result in the sense that either the FIR is still not registered, or that even after registering it no proper investigation is held, it is open to the aggrieved person to file an application under Section 156 (3) of Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 before the learned Magistrate concerned. If such an application under Section 156 (3) is filed before the Magistrate, the Magistrate can direct the FIR to be registered and also can direct a proper investigation to be made, in a case where, according to the aggrieved person, no proper investigation was made. The Magistrate can also under the same provision monitor the investigation to ensure a proper investigation. 

Now, what S.156 (3) in Code, 1973 has said is slightly changed in BNSS, 2023. S.175 (3) of BNSS, 2023 says that an affidavit is needed and Magistrate will have to conduct an inquiry before ordering investigation. S.156 (3) had no such requirements. So, the power which Magistrate used to exercise under S.156 (3) under earlier Code, 1973 is now made a restricted one through S.175 (3). S.175 (4) of BNSS, 2023 has made Magistrate-ordered investigation against public servant difficult. S.175 (4) of BNSS, 2023 has no equivalent provisions in the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973.