Chennai, Aug 05: The Madras High Court has ordered disciplinary action against five Indian Police Service officers for having failed in their duty to ensure that no criminal complaint gets closed without filing negative final reports before the jurisdictional magistrates and without sending due intimation to the complainants as well as the suspects.
Justice P. Velmurugan ordered initiation of disciplinary action against P. Saravanan, M. Sree Abhinav, S. Sakthi Ganesan, R. Rajaram and S. Jeyakumar since they had served as Superintendent of Police in Cuddalore district where a complaint was closed by the police in 2017 but no final report was filed before the magistrate till date.
After ordering departmental action against 11 Inspectors who had served at Kullanchavadi police station in Cuddalore district during the relevant period, the judge also called for a list of IPS officers who served as Cuddalore Superintendent of Police since the complaint in question was registered on September 2, 2015.
The judge was informed that C. Vijayakumar had served as the Cuddalore SP from June 29, 2015 to July 30, 2018 but the officer died on July 7, 2023. He was further told that five other IPS officers had held that post from August 3, 2018 to till date.
The incumbent Cuddalore SP Mr. Jeyakumar had been occupying the post since January 3, 2025. Mr. Abhinav, Mr. Ganesan and Mr. Rajaram were now serving as the Assistant Director of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy in Hyderabad, National Investigation Agency Superintendent of Police and Thanjavur Superintendent of Police respectively, said Government Advocate N. Palanikumar.
After recording the submissions, Justice Velmurugan wrote that the illegality of the police closing criminal complaints on their own without filing final reports before the jurisdictional magistrates would not have occurred if the five IPS officers had conducted a proper review during their tenure as Superintendent of Police in Cuddalore district.
Their failure to take such steps reflects a clear dereliction of duty and constitutes a serious lapse in supervisory responsibility,” the judge said and ordered initiation of disciplinary action against all five of them.
He also called for an action taken report to be filed before the High Court after three months.
Court ordered that, henceforth, no police complaint should be marked or treated as ‘closed’ unless a final report was filed before the jurisdictional magistrate.
Due intimation of such closure should be sent to the complainants as well as the suspects and the Station House Officer must maintain proper records of such communication. The DGP was directed to ensure that the information maintained at the police stations always tally with the information available on the Court Management System software and to consider as a serious procedural lapse any discrepancy in closing of cases without filing of final reports before the magistrates & Investigating officers and Station House Officers who fail to file the final report or neglect to inform the complainant shall be subjected to disciplinary proceedings & also Supervisory officers who fail in their duty to oversee such matters shall also be held accountable,” the judge ordered.
Finally, the DGP was directed to issue a comprehensive circular to all district police units and Commissionerate's within four weeks for ensuring strict compliance of the court orders.
|