"Institutional Lethargy Has Crept Into Police Stations": Orissa High Court Issues Guidelines For Compulsory Registration Of FIRs

The Orissa High Court on Monday issued a slew of instructions/guidelines to the Director General of Police, Odisha for compulsory registration of First Information Reports, requiring him to forward the same to all the police stations of the State. Expressing disappointment over frequent cases of non-registration of FIRs by police officers, the Single Judge Bench of Dr. Justice Sanjeeb Kumar Panigrahi observed, "It is essential that the police officer need to be sensitized for registering the FIR throughout the State when a complainant approaches the Police Station. Court's Order After perusing the materials on record and hearing the counsel, the Court observed that some amount of 'institutional lethargy' has crept in to so many police stations of the State. Therefore, in order to sensitise the police officers, the Court directed the DGP to issue the following instructions to all the police stations of the State: "a) Whenever a person comes to the Police Station with a complaint, the Officer posted at the Police Station shall compulsorily receive the complaint and endorse the complaint by way of a receipt or by way of stamp acknowledging the said receipt at that Police Station with time and date.