Rohtak court acted beyond jurisdiction: HC

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has set aside the orders of the Rohtak courts restraining the police from imposing Section 308 of the IPC in criminal cases without obtaining medical opinion.

The Rohtak police had filed a petition in the High Court against the orders of the local courts.

“This court has no hesitation in saying that the Courts below obviously had acted beyond the jurisdiction vested in them. While passing the impugned order dated June 13, 2023, the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate exceeded his jurisdiction vested in him to grant bail by issuing direction to the SHO not to invoke offence under Section 308 of the IPC in the absence of any medical opinion,” state the orders passed by Justice Manisha Batra, Judge, Punjab and Haryana High Court.

The orders further maintain that “the revisional court, by upholding the said order, certainly contravened the basic principle of criminal law to the effect that power to conduct investigation rests in the police/investigating agency and the Courts of Magistrate are empowered only to the extent to which the monitoring of investigation/re-investigation or re-opening of investigation is concerned. As such, the impugned orders, passed by the Courts below, thereby issuing directions to the police authorities, are not sustainable and are liable to be set aside, to the extent to which the directions as mentioned above had been issued. Accordingly, the present petition is partly allowed and the aforesaid directions issued by the Courts below, with regard to obtaining medical opinion before invoking offence under Section 308 of IPC, are set aside”.

On May 23, 2023, a case was registered at a police station in Rohtak under Sections 323, 324, 506 and 308 of the IPC.

During a hearing of the case, the court of Rohtak ACJM, Manglesh Kumar Choubey, observed that the district police was adding Section 308 (Attempt to Commit Culpable Homicide) of the IPC in offences of simple hurt with impunity, which, the court said, was not appreciable.

The court maintained that Section 308 of the IPC should not be imposed without obtaining medical opinion.

In this context, instructions were given to all SHOs of the police stations in Rohtak district. The district police filed an appeal at the District and Sessions Court against the orders of the ACJM’s court.

However, in orders passed on September 2, 2023, the Sessions Court rejected the appeal of the district police and upheld the orders given by the ACJM court. The court said if an investigating officer disobeys the orders of the court, then the aggrieved party can seek action against the investigating officer under Sections 166 and 188 of the IPC.

The district police then filed an appeal before the Punjab and Haryana High Court. While hearing the case on April 26, 2024, High Court Judge Harkesh Manuja had stayed the observations made by the Rohtak courts in this regard.