The Supreme Court on Monday came down heavily on the Uttar Pradesh Police for converting a civil dispute into criminal cases, terming it a case of “complete breakdown of the rule of law “in the state of Uttar Pradesh.
“Converting a civil matter into a criminal case is not acceptable. There is a complete breakdown of rule of law in the state of Uttar Pradesh. It’s strange that it’s happening day in and day out in the UP. Lawyers have forgotten there is some civil jurisdiction also,” observed Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna heading a bench also comprising Justice Sanjay Kumar and Justice K V Viswanathan.
Advertisement
The top court’s remarks came in the course of the hearing of a plea by an alleged accused Debu Singh, who said that his civil case has been illegally converted to criminal one by the Uttar Pradesh police.
Taking Uttar Pradesh Police to task for its role, the court observed, “This is wrong what is happening in UP… every day civil suits are being converted to criminal cases…. it is absurd, merely not giving money cannot be turned into an offence…That’s not correct! That’s a breakdown of the rule of law completely.”
The court did not stop with these remarks but asked the Director General of Police and the station house officer of a Gautam Budh Nagar district police station to file affidavits narrating the entire case details within two weeks, explaining why the criminal law was set in motion in a civil dispute.
The bench further warned that this court will be going to haul up, probably initiate contempt proceedings against the Investigating Officer in the particular case.
The top court, in the Sharif Ahmed case, had held that the investigating officer must make clear and complete entries of all columns in the chargesheet so that the court can clearly understand which crime has been committed by which accused and what the material evidence available in the case is. “This is missing in this case,” the bench added.
The court further directed that the compliance has to be done, if it is not done, then this court will be going to slap costs on the concerned officer, to ensure that there is compliance.
The bench asked the DGP to apprise it as to what steps he has taken towards compliance of the Sharif Ahmad Decision, and fixed the matter for further hearing in the week commending May, 5, 2025.