The Madras High Court recently had occasion to deliberate on the limited powers of the Police Complaints Authority, as defined by the Supreme Court.

In this regard, Justice N Anand Venkatesh clarified that the authority does not have the power to order the registration of FIRs or investigation into complaints between private parties i.e. when the complaint is not against a police officer. The Court’s order notes,

“The Hon’ble Supreme Court has categorically said that the State-level Complainants Authority would take cognizance of only allegations of serious misconduct by the Police personnel and recommend for taking departmental action and/or criminal action against the delinquent Police Officer. This recommendation is binding on the authority concerned…

… the power to give a direction to register an FIR or to transfer investigation or to complete the investigation within a particular period or to alter the offence or to direct further investigation or to file a further report, are all falls within the jurisdiction of competent Court, as prescribed under the Code of Criminal Procedure. These powers can never be exercised by the Police Complainants Authority since by exercising such a power, it exceeds its authority and jurisdiction and starts acting like an alternate Court of law.” 

The observations were made in a case where the Puducherry Police Complaints Authority had directed a fresh investigation into a land-grabbing complaint lodged by a private individual. The complainant subsequently approached the High Court for enforcing the Authority’s order, contending that the police had failed to comply with the same.

The police, however, submitted before the Court that the criminal complaint was closed after it was found to be a private civil dispute. The Court, therefore, disposed of the petition, while observing that it is open to the complainant to pursue appropriate civil remedies to resolve his dispute.

During the course of the case, the Public Prosecutor highlighted that similar directions were being issued in several cases by the Police Complaints Authority in Puducherry, in excess of its jurisdiction as defined by the Supreme Court. This, in turn, prompted the High Court to examine the legality of such directions.

The Police Complaints Authority was constituted at State and District levels pursuant to the Supreme Court’s 2006 judgement in Prakash Singh v. Union of India. The Supreme Court had directed the constitution of this authority to deal with allegations of serious misconduct by police personnel. The mandate of the Authority was defined by the Supreme Court in the following terms:

“The State level Complaints Authority would take cognizance of only allegations of serious misconduct by the police personnel, which would include incidents involving death, grievous hurt or rape in police custody. The district level Complaints Authority would, apart from above cases, may also inquire into allegations of extortion, land/house grabbing or any incident involving serious abuse of authority. The recommendations of the Complaints Authority, both at the district and State levels, for any action, departmental or criminal, against a delinquent police officer shall be binding on the concerned authority.”

The High Court has now clarified that these powers would not include powers to order criminal investigation in cases against individuals who are not part of the police. The reasons for restricting the jurisdiction has also been explained in the High Court order as follows:

“In the considered view of this Court, the scope of the function performed by the Police Complainants Authority, cannot be taken to such a level, wherein, the authority starts functioning as an alternative to Courts that is not the purpose for which Police Complainants Authority was constituted by the Hon’ble Supreme Court…

…The Police Complainants Authority owes its existence to the judgment of the Hon’ble Supreme Court in Prakash Singh case and the consequent Government Order passed by the Government of Puducherry. It can act only within the four corners of the authority vested in it.”

Referring to the considerable number of cases where the Authority had given directions for the registration of FIR, transfer of investigation, etc., the Court also noted,

“If this goes unchecked, there is a possibility where there can be a clash between a direction given by the Court and a direction given by a Police Complainants Authority. This will lead to unnecessary compound.“

Before parting with the matter, the Court also directed that the order be circulated to the Police Complaints Authority for compliance.

“A copy of this order shall be marked to the Police Complaints Authority and the said Authority shall take note of this order and carry on with its functions in further.”