Chennai, Aug 6 (PTI) The Madras High Court has directed the Director General of Police to initiate appropriate disciplinary proceedings against four IPS officers and a Tamil Nadu police officer for failure to file closure report in a case before a magistrate.
Justice P Velmurugan also directed the DGP to file a detailed action taken report.
In a recent order, the judge gave the directives while disposing of a petition filed by Vijayarani, which sought a direction to the Cuddalore police to file a final report in a case.
When the case came up for hearing earlier, government advocate informed the court that the investigation in the said case was closed as early as in the year 2017.
In his order, the judge said although the police claimed that the case was closed in the year 2017, the closure report was admittedly not submitted to the jurisdictional magistrate.
As senior supervisory officers, the superintendents of police were duty bound to exercise oversight.
Had the five officers conducted proper inspections they would have detected the prolonged inaction and ensured that the closure report was duly filed before the magistrate and that the same was duly intimated to the complaint. Their failure to take such steps reflects a clear dereliction of duty and constitutes a serious lapse in supervisory responsibility.
The judge said, "In view of the recurring nature of such procedural failures, this court deems it appropriate to issue directions to the Director General of Police, Tamil Nadu, to prevent similar lapses in the future".
Any instance where a case was shown as "closed" in police records without the corresponding filing of a final report in court shall be treated as a serious procedural lapse.
The judge said the DGP shall issue a circular to all district units and commissionerates within four weeks.
The DGP was directed to comply with the directions and file a comprehensive compliance report within three months.