Telangana High Court pulls up state police for not registering FIRs

Hyderabad: Finding fault with the attitude of the state police for their alleged involvement in unnecessary issues and neglecting those that they have to actually attend to, the Telangana High Court directed the police personnel to follow the law, rather than showing interest in unwanted things.

The vacation court comprising Acting Chief Justice Raghavendra Singh Chauhan was dealing with some petitions alleging unnecessary interference of police in civil issues and also those against the police for not registering FIRs after keeping complaints aside.

In particular, the bench referred to one petition by Urban Asia Restaurants & Hotels Private Ltd complaining that the police failed to take action in spite of a complaint that was lodged against L&T Metro Rail for charges of harassment and cheating.

While perusing the details of the cases, the ACJ Chauhan observed “This is the fascinating thing about the police in this state, when their action is required, they don’t act…when their interference is not needed, then they act”

The court said that making a GD Entry was not enough, but the registration of an FIR in accordance with law was compulsory. The ACJ pointed out the lapses in the police’s response including that they were not conducting an inquiry about the offence after they received the complaint. Urban Asia Restaurants & Hotels Private Ltd’s case was that L&T  Metro Rail had promised huge benefits and lured the Urban Asia firm to take 16,000 sq feet area in its Metro Station Mall at Hitec City on lease to run a food court. The authorities assured Urban Asia promoters that there would be 25,000-footfalls per day and it would yield huge returns to them. A licence agreement too was entered into by both the parties on December 13, 2018. Strangely, the rent of `18 lakh per month was collected from August 2018, that is almost six months before the licence agreement.

The promoters approached the court saying that the police were interfering with the peaceful possession and enjoyment of the licensed premises of the hotel, on the third floor of the Hitec City Mall, Madhapur in spite of the Injunction Orders of the City Civil Court.

They also explained their complaint was pending before the police.

In other cases, the petitioners made allegations against the police for unnecessary involvement in civil cases and in some cases complained about their inaction against the petitioner’s complaints.

In the Urban Asia case, the court directed the police to lodge an FIR according to the petitioner’s complaint against the respondent L&T Metro on the charges of IPC sections 341,420,504 and 506, etc and not to interfere with the peaceful possession of the petitioner’s premises.