Pending Inquest Proceedings U/S 174 CrPC No Bar For Magistrate To Order Registration Of FIR: JKL High Court

A bench of Justice M A Chowdhary observed,

"Merely because the inquest proceedings were pending before the police at the time when the impugned order was passed by the learned Magistrate (to register FIR) would not make the said order unsustainable in law".

The observations came in a plea seeking quashing of an order passed by Judicial Magistrate, Jammu to register FIR in an alleged dowry death case.

Challenging the FIR the petitioner submitted that the allegations made against them by the father of the deceased are false, and that since the inquest proceedings under section 174 CrPC were already underway, the allegations levelled against them in the impugned FlR cannot be taken into consideration, till the conclusion of the inquest proceedings.

Justice Chowdhary observed that the purpose of inquest proceedings is to ascertain the apparent cause of death and these proceedings, in the nature of enquiry are entirely distinct from investigation under section 157 CrPC.

"These proceedings, in the nature of enquiry are entirely distinct from investigation under section 157 CrPC. The investigation is done by a police officer under section 157 CrPC, which results in submission of final police report. During inquest proceedings, if police officer finds commission of cognizable offence, FIR can be lodged to investigate further in terms of Section 157 CrPC", the bench underscored.

Deliberating on the inherent limitations of enquiry under Section 174 the court said that the object of these proceedings is merely to ascertain whether a person has died under suspicious circumstances or an unnatural death and if so what is the apparent cause of death. The question regarding the details as to how the deceased was assaulted or by whom or under what circumstances is foreign to the ambit and scope of the proceedings under section 174 CrPC, the bench added.

So far as the investigation is concerned, the same commences with the recording of an information pertaining to commission of a cognizable offence and any step taken by the investigating officer pursuant to recording of such an information towards detection of the crime would be a part of investigation under CrPC. So these are two distinct types of proceedings, Justice Chowdhary elucidated.

Thus the court declined interfere with the impugned order and upheld the registration of FIR.

Case Title: Rahul Kumar & Ors Vs UT of J&K

Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (JKL) 19

Coram: Justice MA Chowdhary

Counsel For Petitioner: Mr. Karan Sharma

Counsel For Respondent: Mr. Pawan Dev Singh Dy AG for R-1 Mr. Sahil Bhardwaj, Advocate for R-2

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