Orissa High Court quashes police circular order conferring investigation powers to Graduate Constables, CI Havildars

The Orissa High Court recently quashed a police circular order issued by the Inspector General of Police, Odisha which had conferred on Graduate Constables of Police and Crime Intelligence Havildars (CIH) the powers to investigate certain criminal offences that are punishable up to three years. [Minaketan Nayak and others v. State of Odisha and other].The circular order had been issued in 2022 to supersede a similar 2019 circular order as part of efforts to reduce the backlog of pending criminal cases in police stations and to cut down on the burden of investigating officers..The goal was to enable senior police officials to focus on investigating more serious criminal offences, by assigning investigative duties in petty offences to constables and CI Havildar personnel..Justice AK Mohapatra, however, observed that since constables and CI Havildars were not “officers” within the meaning of Section 2 (o) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), they could not be tasked with investigative powers under Sections 156 and 157 of the CrPC (dealing with investigation in cognizable offences and procedure for investigation).“… the post of constable can never be equated with the post of officer of whatsoever designation. In such view of the matter, this Court has no hesitation to come to a conclusion that either the Graduate Constables or Crime Investigation Havildars can never be equated with an officer in the police department,” the judgment stated..The Court clarified that in order to carry out investigative functions under Sections 156 and 157 of the CrPC, the Graduate Constables and CI Havildars must first be designated as “officer”, either by promoting them or by creating new posts of “junior officer in the cadre.”The judge added that such promotion or designation would also accompany an enhancement in remuneration “either by fixing a higher scale of pay or by providing them some allowance/increment.”“This is more so, once such employees are upgraded from G.Cs. and C.I. Havildar to the rank of officers, they will be required to perform duties with enhanced responsibility,” the Court explained..Hence, the Court quashed Police Circular Order No.393 dated May 21, 2022, which had called for conferring such investigative powers on Graduate Constables and CI Havildars, without any accompanying financial or service benefit..The Court’s order was passed in a plea by a Graduate Constable, who had also highlighted that the 2022 circular order, while replacing a 2019 circular order, had removed a clause that allowed only “willing” personnel to be delegated such duties after requisite training..This apart, the petitioner also attacked the 2022 circular order on the ground that it was passed without the concurrence of the State government and the Home Department. This plea was tagged with several other similar petitions and decided via common judgment passed last week. .The Court acknowledged that issues concerning the management, supervision and deployment of police forces generally come within the sole domain of the Home Department and the Police Administration in the State. .The bench further commented that Court intervention is not desirable in matters related to the training and deployment of police personnel, more so when an attempt is made to reduce the huge pendency of cases awaiting investigation. The Court would have never considered the case, had it been a case of simple police force management, deployment of forces or re-casting of police duties, the judge added.All the same, the Court decided to consider the case, since it involved complex issues and additional duties being delegated to General Constables and CIH personnel..Having found the 2022 circular to be unsustainable in law, the Court advised the State government to consider the whole issue afresh and to pass another circular order in conformity with the law to tackle the issue of rising criminal cases that await investigation..“... in view the rise in number of cases, awaiting investigation and further taking into consideration the public interest involved, this Court is of the view that the Home Department, Government of Odisha shall do well to consider the whole issue afresh and after due deliberation bring a fresh police circular order in consonance with Sections 156 and 157, Cr.P.C. as well as the Police Act and Manual and till such time, the earlier Police Circular Order shall remain operative,” the Court said..Senior Advocate B Routray along with advocates SK Samal, SD Routray, J Biswal, M Panda, AK Das and M Padhi appeared for the petitioners. Additional Government Advocate, PK Rout appeared for the State of Odisha and police authorities. .[Read Judgment]