The Bombay High Court has recently directed the Director General of Police (DGP) to ensure that the instructions issued by his office regarding the proper maintenance of 'case diaries' in accordance with the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) and relevant circulars are adhered to by his subordinate and lower-ranking officers in a diligent manner, without offering any feeble excuses.

A case diary is a daily record of the investigation process maintained by investigating officers. The bench expressed its dissatisfaction with numerous cases where police stations failed to follow the necessary procedures in maintaining case diaries as outlined in Section 172 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC). The court had previously brought such cases to the attention of the Director General of Police (DGP) but observed that there had been no improvement.

On August 19, a division bench comprising Justice Ajey S. Gadkari and Shivkumar G. Dige heard a writ petition filed by senior management officials of Motilal Oswal Financial Services Limited. These officials were accused of outraging the modesty of a female senior official within the company.

Last year, in March 2022, the woman was suspended from her position following complaints made by the management. Subsequently, in May 2022, she filed a First Information Report (FIR) against the individuals named in the petition. An external committee conducted an independent inquiry into the matter.

On June 10 of the previous year, the High Court, while affirming that the investigation would continue, granted interim relief to the petitioners to protect them from coercive action. This relief was subsequently extended at various times. On August 18, the High Court reviewed a case diary related to the aforementioned incident and noted that it was not in compliance with Section 172(1B) of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) regarding the proper pagination of the diary. Additionally, it was found to have been maintained without due regard for the circulars issued by the Director General of Police (DGP) in January 2017 and December 2018.

On August 19, the bench noted that it is “yet another case” of case diary not maintained as per law and observed, “It appears to us that, the circulars issued by the DGP have not reached to the lower rank officers of the police department in Maharashtra. On at least three occasions, we have referred such cases to the office of the DGP. However there is no improvement till date.”

Further, the bench observed that by misinterpreting June, 2022 HC order, the police officers failed to take the probe to its logical end in over a year.