Summary:
NEW DELHI: The Delhi high court has cautioned Delhi Police to refrain from filing status reports in a “casual” and “cavalier” manner, saying due diligence must be done while filing documents in court proceedings.“The officers of the Delhi Police are directed to eschew from filing status reports in a casual and cavalier manner,” a bench of justices Siddharth Mridul and Sangita Dhingra observed while asking the police to exercise caution, care and diligence.In the process, HC let go of criminal contempt of court proceedings it had earlier initiated against the station house officer of Mayur Vihar police station in east Delhi . A single judge of the high court had issued contempt notice against the cop for allegedly including a wrong statement in a status report The bench observed that officials of Delhi Police are required to be held to the high standards by which they profess their conduct to be judged.Before the single judge, the SHO landed in trouble while it was hearing a petition by a woman seeking directions to remove derogatory remarks made against her and her community by a post on a social networking site.On court’s direction, a status report was filed by the SHO concerned in which it was stated that “a letter has been sent to....
(social networking site) through Cyber Cell East Delhi to remove the contents/ photographs uploaded on the site in connection with the petitioner (woman)”.However, the single judge later came to know that at the time of filing of status report, no communication had been addressed to the social networking site by the competent authority for removing the alleged objectionable material posted on its website.The judge then made a reference to the division bench for initiating appropriate action for criminal contempt against the SHO concerned triggering an unconditional regret and apology from the officer for the language error that occurred on his behalf..