Police officers who do not register FIRs in cyber crime complaints will face contempt of court: Patna High Court

The Patna High Court said on Monday that officers-in-charge of police stations who refuse to register First Information Reports (FIRs) on cyber crime complaints of telecom companies would be proceeded against for contempt of court [Shiv Kumar v. State of Bihar]..Justice Sandeep Kumar passed the order to enforce a previous direction for registration of FIR in cases regarding the sale and purchase of SIMs by cyber criminals.“It is made clear that the Officer-in-Charge of the police stations who are not registering F.I.R.s on the complaint of the telecom companies shall be proceeded against for committing contempt of court,” the order recorded..The Court thus asked the telecom companies to submit details of police stations and officers-in-charge who refused to register the cases. Further, the Department of Telecommunications was directed to submit a specific affidavit as to whether FIRs were being registered by telecom companies in all states across the country or only Bihar..On the submission of Advocate Tarkeshwar Nath Singh that an FIR was not registered by the Rupaspur Police Station after his money was siphoned off by cyber criminals, the Court issued notice to the concerned officer..Justice Kumar emphasised that this action was violative of the guidelines of the Supreme Court in Lalita Kumari v. State of UP.“...when cognizable offence is committed and just because of the fact that petty amount is involved, the Police cannot refuse to register the F.I.R,” he added.Thus, the officer-in-charge was asked to give reasons as to why an FIR was not registered in a crime for which a report was made long ago..The case was listed for further hearing on March 7..Advocate Pramod Kumar Verma appeared for the petitioner. Additional Solicitor General KN Singh, Senior Advocate KK Jha and Advocates Manoj Kumar Singh, Rishi Raj, Suresh Pd Singh, Kumari Rashmi, Amit Prakash, Rakesh Kumar Mishra, Ajay, Ratnakar Pandey, Rajesh Ranjan and APP Jharkhandi Upadhyay represented the respondents. Advocates Bhaskar Shankar and Prakritita Sharma appeared for the intervenor.Advocate Manu Tripurari was the Amicus Curaie. .[Read Order]