MANOJ KUMAR SHARMA & ORS. versus STATE OF CHHATTISGARH & ANR.

Citation: [2016] 7 S.C.R. 154 · Decided: 23-08-2016 · Supreme Court of India · Bench: MADAN B. LOKUR · Disposal: Appeal(s) allowed

Cited by 4 judgment(s) · see the full citation network in Lexace

Judgment (excerpt)

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(2016] 7 S.C.R. 154 
MANOJ KUMAR SHARMA & ORS. 
v. 
STATE OF CHHATTISGARH & ANR. 
(Criminal Appeal No. 775of2013) 
AUGUST23,2016 
[MADAN B. LOKUR AND R.K. AGRAWAL, JJ.] 
Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973: s. 174: 
Death of wife of appellant no. 1 at Ambala - Investigating 
officer submitted report that there was no sign of foul play in the 
occurrence - Magistrate accepted the final report - Since the 
appellant no. 1 was a Flying Officer at the relevant time, a Court of 
lnquily was also convened to investigate into the alleged role of 
appellant no. 1 which was finally closed - After 5 years of the 
closing of the above case, fresh FIR was got registered by the brother 
of the deceased u/ss.304B, 498A and s.34 !PC on receipt of 
anony111ous letter - High Court directed for continuance of the 
investigation of the alleged offence - On s.482 petition, High Court 
refused to quash the charge sheet and cognizance taken by the 
Magistrate - On appeal, held: The brother of the deceased instituteq 
malicious prosecution against appellant no. 1 after a period of 5 
years that too on the basis of anonymous letters - Allegations were 
vague and did not warrant continuation of criminal proceedings 
against the appellants - High Court failed to apply the test whether 
the uncontroverted allegations as 111ade prima facie establish the 
offence - FIR quashed. 
Scope of inquiry u!s. 174 - Held: The proceedings u/s. 174 
have a very limited scope - The object of the 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 the death - The question regarding the details as to how 
the deceased was assaulted or who assaulted him or under what 
circu111stances he was assaulted is foreign to the ambit and scope of 
the proceedings u/s. 174 of the Code - Neither in practice nor in 
law was it necessary for the police to mention those details in the 
inquest report - It is, therefore, not necessary to enter all the details 
of the overt acts in the inquest report. 
ss.154, 174 - Information received uls. 174 whether satisfies 
the· requirement of s. 154 - The investigation on an inquiry uls.17 4 
154 
MANOJ KUMAR SHARMA & ORS. v. STATE OF 
CHHATtISGARH & ANR. 
is distinct from the investigation as contemplated u!s. 154 relating 
to commission of a cognizable offence - In the case on hand, there 
was 110 FIR registered with the police station, neither any 
investigation nor any report uls. 17 3 was submitted - Therefore, 
challenge to the impugned FIR could not be assailed on the ground 
that it was a second FIR in the garb of which investigation or fresh 
investigation of the same incident was initiated. 
Investigation - Jurisdiction to investigate the crime - Jfeld: 
At the stage of investigation, it cannot be held that the SHO does 
not have territorial jurisdiction to investigate the crime. 
Jurisdiction: Held: Territorial jurisdiction of a court with 
regard to a criminal offence would be decided on the basis of the 
place of occurrence of the incident. 
Allowing the appeal, the Court 
HELD: 1.1. Scope of 'Inquiry' u/s. 174 of the Code: 
The procedure under Section 174 is for the purpose of 
discovering the cause of death, and the evidence taken was very 
short. When the body cannot be found or has been buried, there 
can be no investigation under Section 174. This sections is 
intended to apply to cases in which an inquest is necessary. The 
proceedings under this Section should be kept more distinct from 
the proceedings taken on the complaint. 
Whereas the starting 
point of the powers of police was changed from the power of the 
officer in charge of a police station to investigate into a cognizable 
offence without the order of a Magistrate, to the reduction of the 
first information regarding commission of a cognizable offence, 
whether received orally or in writing, into writing. As such, the 
objective of such placement of provisions was clear which was to 
ensure that the recording of the first information should be the 
starting point of any investigation by the police. The purpose of 
registering FIR is to set the machinery of criminal investigation 
into motion, which culminates with filing of the police report and 
only after registration of FIR, beginning of investigation in a case, 
collection of evidence during investigation and formation of the 
final opinion is the sequence which results in filin

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