State Cannot Opposes Registering Of FIR When There Is Allegation Of Interpolation In Judicial Records: Jharkhand HC [Read Order]

"State cannot opposes registering of an FIR, when there is an allegation of interpolation in Judicial records and there is allegation of forgery. It is the duty of the State in these circumstances to see that an FIR is lodged," single bench of Justice Ananda Sen observed while expressing surprise that the State Government had chosen to oppose the plea for registration of FIR on such a "serious issue".

The Petitioner, Mathias Vijay Toppo was a SAR Officer in Ranchi. He had moved the High Court stating that in some of the judicial records forgery was committed by replication of his signature. It was also submitted that there were 59 cases that were not even registered in the Trial Register but, had been shown to be disposed by making forgery.

Expressing "surprise" on the stance taken by the State, that chose to oppose the petition, the court remarked,

"Surprisingly the State is opposing registering of FIR. Learned APP opposes registering of FIR, for reasons best known. The attitude of State is not understood by the Court."

Noting that the allegations in question are very serious, the court recalled the ruling in Ramesh Kumari v. State (NCT) Delhi & Ors., (2006) 2SCC 677, whereby the Top Court had held that when a cognizable offence is made out and commission of the same has been complained of, before the police, the police cannot refuse to register a FIR.

"Credibility of the information is not a condition precedent for registering a case. Further in this case taking the face value of the statement made by the petitioner the allegation levelled which is of tampering of court records and forging signature definitely makes out an offence under the IPC. These allegation needs to be investigated," the bench said.

Case Details:

Case Title: Mathias Vijay Toppo v. State of Jharkhand & Ors.

Case No.: WP (Cr.) No. 371/2018

Quorum: Justice Ananda Sen

Appearance: Advocates R. Kirshna and Amit Kumar Sinha (for Petitioner); AAG Ashok Kumar (for State)

Click Here To Download Order

Read Order