Police Investigation

Supreme Court holds Section 197 CrPC sanction bites only at the cognizance stage, not when a Magistrate orders police officials' FIR registered under Section 156(3).

The image of a four-year-old child sitting in a sterile, intimidating police station is heartbreaking enough on its own, but the reality of what transpired in a recent case in Gurugram, Haryana, is a profound affront to the very idea of justice. In a late March hearing that sent shockwaves through the legal community and the public alike, the Supreme Court of India was forced to step in and vociferously reprimand the Haryana police and a local magistrate for an investigation so botched it...

The Supreme Court has recently admonished the Andhra Pradesh Police for its "complicity" and "laxity" in the investigation of a 2022 murder case involving YSRCP MLC Ananta Udaya Bhaskar, setting a strict 2026 deadline for the trial's conclusion.