Magistrate to take cognizance of an offence even after final negative report of the investigating officer.

Giving an affirmative answer to the question that whether a Magistrate after accepting a negative final report submitted by the Police can take action on the basis of the protest petition filed by the complainant/first informant, the bench of SJ Mukhopadhaya and Ranjan Gogoi, JJ held that that only because the Magistrate has accepted a final report, the same by itself would not stand in his way to take cognizance of the offence on a protest/complaint petition.

In the present case, a case was registered under Section 364 IPC by the respondents, before the Supreme Court, against the appellants and two other accused before the Magistrate and on completion of investigation, the investigating officer submitted a final report to the court that no case is made out and the accused have been falsely implicated. However, the Magistrate accepted the final report but simultaneously directed that the case be proceeded with as a complaint case which resulted into a petition before the Allahabad High Court where it was held that the Magistrate was correct in taking cognizance against the accused even after accepting the final negative report.

The Court, rejecting the contention of the appellants represented by Shirish Mishra, dismissed the petition and held that having accepted the final report the Magistrate had not become “functus officio” and was not denuded of all power to proceed in the matter. [Rakesh v. State of UP, Criminal Appeal No.1412 of 2014, decided on 13.08.2014]

Article referred: http://blog.scconline.com/post/2014/08/22/magistrate-does-not-become-functus-offcio-after-accepting-final-negative-report-of-the-police.aspx