Police officers will soon be trained on the law laid down by the Supreme Court in Lalitha Kumari’s case on the manner of registration of FIR under Section 154 of the Cr. PC, the government has told the High Court of Karnataka.
Submissions in this regard were made before a Division Bench, comprising Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice Hemant Chandangoudar, during the hearing of a PIL petition filed by Bachpan Bachao Andolan, and a PIL plea initiated suo motu by the court for monitoring implementation of Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015.
The Bench, during earlier hearings, had criticised the action of the SPs of Kolar, Vijayapura, Ballari, Gadag, and Kalaburagi for reporting that no victim of child pornography were housed in the child-care centres in their districts without conducting proper investigation by registering FIRs as per the law laid down by the apex court on how the police must act in cases of cognisable offences.
A report of the Ministry of Woman and Child Development-2018 on the analysis of date of mapping and review exercise of child care institutions under the JJ Act, 2015, had stated that 113 victims of child pornography were kept in child care institutions, and the court had sought a report on the probe conducted in such instances. The FIRs were registered only after the court pulled up the SPs and the State police chief for not registering FIRs treating the Ministry’s report as basis, and the court had said that officers, including IPS officers, require training on the law.
Meanwhile, the Bench directed the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to submit the progress made in the FIRs registered by March 7 and directed the State to give details of training to be given to the police on registration of FIRs.
