Can directly approach HC under s. 482 CrPC to register criminal complaints: Madras HC

Last week, the Madras High Court held that the Court may be directly approached to register a criminal complaint, in light of its inherent powers under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973..Justice MS Ramesh overruled an earlier decision of the High Court in Sugesan Transport Pvt. Ltd v. Inspector of Police, wherein it had been held that the Court cannot be so approached without exhausting alternative remedies laid down in the Cr.P.C..The Court held that the earlier view was incorrect, given that Section 482 of the Code begins with an non-obstante clause..“…the availability of an alternate remedy under the Code of Criminal Procedure cannot be an embargo for the High Court to exercise its inherent powers to secure the ends of justice in view of the non-obstante clause.”.The court further relied on the Supreme Court judgments in Ramesh Kumari v. State (N.C.T. Of Delhi) and others (2006) and Prabhu Chawla v. State of Rajasthan and another (2016), to hold:.“Since the Hon’ble Supreme Court has held in the aforesaid two judgments that the ground of alternate remedy is not a bar to invoke Section 482 Cr.P.C., and when an extra-ordinary situation excites the High Court’s jurisdiction, there cannot be a total ban on the exercise of its inherent powers. .These propositions are binding on this Court to the extent that the petition for a direction to register a police complaint under Section 482 Cr.P.C., is maintainable before the High Court.”.The Court has however reiterated that the powers under Section 482 must be “exercised very sparingly and in the rarest of rare cases”..Further, it laid down that though the High Court could be approached for a direction to the police to register an FIR, the time table prescribed by the Supreme Court in Lalita Kumari Vs. Government of Uttar Pradesh and others could not be circumvented..Read the order below: