‘Court can be approached any time for FIR’

Justice MS Ramesh, taking a contrary view of an order by Justice P N Prakash, which held that such petitions should be filed only after exhausting the options of approaching the police station, the SP and Jurisdictional magistrate concerned said, “With utmost and due respect to the views expressed by my brother judge, I am constrained to hold that the petition under section 482 of the CrPC, seeking for registration of a complaint is maintainable.”

The judge, citing several Supreme Court orders in this regard, said, “The ground of alternative remedy is not a bar to invoke section 482 of the CrPC and when an extra-ordinary situation excites the High Court’s jurisdiction, there cannot be a total ban on the exercise of its inherent powers.” 

However, Justice Ramesh also held, “This court is conscious of the fact that the powers under section 482 of the CrPC must be exercised very sparingly and in the rarest of rare cases and the limitation to exercise this power is self-restrained.” 

Justice Prakash had ruled that petitions shall not be numbered unless accompanied by an affidavit sworn in by the complainant with satisfactory materials to show that police have not completed the preliminary inquiry (within the six weeks). 

He had also held that the petitioner may approach the High Court, if aggrieved either by inaction or otherwise of the magistrate in the aforesaid proceedings. The contra view had come forth when a petition was filed before Justice Ramesh by one K Raghupathy seeking a direction to SI of Police, CCB, Chennai, to register a case on the complaint made by him on June 13, 2017. The High Court Registry raised a doubt about its maintainability leading to an order in the affirmative.