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Sunday, March 16, 2014

Supreme Court held that Registration of FIR is mandatory under Section 154 of the Code, if the information discloses commission of a cognizable offence and no preliminary inquiry is permissible in such a situation

While considering under Section 32 of Constitution of India in Criminal Writ Petition no. 68 of 2008 titled Lalita Kumari Vs. State of UP & Ors. as to whether “a police officer is bound to register a First Information Report (FIR) upon receiving any information relating to commission of a cognizable offence under Section 154 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, or the police officer has the power to conduct a “preliminary inquiry” in order to test the veracity of such information before registering the same?” and in view of the conflicting decisions of Supreme Court on the issue, larger bench (5 Judge Bench) of the Supreme Court held that

(i) Registration of FIR is mandatory under Section 154 of the Code, if the information discloses commission of a cognizable offence and no preliminary inquiry is
permissible in such a situation.

(ii) If the information received does not disclose a cognizable offence but indicates the necessity for an inquiry, a preliminary inquiry may be conducted only to ascertain whether cognizable offence is disclosed or not.

(iii) If the inquiry discloses the commission of a cognizable offence, the FIR must be registered. In cases where preliminary inquiry ends in closing the complaint, a copy of the entry of such closure must be supplied to the first informant forthwith and not later than one week. It must disclose reasons in brief for closing the complaint and not proceeding further.

(iv) The police officer cannot avoid his duty of registering offence if cognizable offence is disclosed.  Action must be taken against erring officers who do not register the FIR if information received by him discloses a cognizable offence.

(v) The scope of preliminary inquiry is not to verify the veracity or otherwise of the information received but only to ascertain whether the information reveals any cognizable offence.

(vi) As to what type and in which cases preliminary inquiry is to be conducted will depend on the facts and circumstances of each case. The category of cases in which preliminary inquiry may be made are as under:
(a)Matrimonial disputes/ family disputes
(b)Commercial offences
(c) Medical negligence cases
(d)Corruption cases
(e) Cases where there is abnormal delay/laches in initiating criminal prosecution, for example, over 3 months delay in reporting the matter without satisfactorily explaining the reasons for delay.

The aforesaid are only illustrations and not exhaustive of all conditions which may warrant preliminary inquiry.

(vii) While ensuring and protecting the rights of the accused and the complainant, a preliminary inquiry should be made time bound and in any case it should not exceed 7 days. The fact of such delay and the causes of it must be reflected in the General Diary entry.

(viii) Since the General Diary/Station Diary/Daily Diary is the record of all information received in a police station, we direct that all information relating to cognizable offences, whether resulting in registration of FIR or leading to an inquiry, must be mandatorily and meticulously reflected in the said Diary and the decision to conduct a preliminary inquiry must also be reflected, as mentioned above.


Sunday, March 9, 2014

New Patent Amendment Rules 2014 have increased the fee


New Patent  (Amendment) Rules 2014 have been published. There is change in Govt. fee with effect from February 28, 2014. Accordingly the Govt. fee disbursements would be higher. There is cost associated for filing Patent Application physically (10% surcharge). Further, a new category of Applicant is introduced i.e. “small entity”.

 
Small entity means an entity whose investment in plants/ machines (in case indulged in manufacturing/ production of goods) or investment in equipment (in case indulged in services) does not exceed the following limits (it is to be noted that while calculating investment in plants and machinery, the cost of pollution control, research and development, industrial safety devices, and such other things specified under THE MICRO, SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES DEVELOPMENT ACT, 2006 is to be excluded)

 
Micro: investment in plants/ machines for manufacturing  industry is less than INR 25 Lakhs or investment in equipment for service industry is less than 10 lakhs

Small: investment in plants/ machines for manufacturing  industry is between INR 25 Lakhs to 5 Crores or investment in equipment for service industry is between 10 lakhs to 2 crores

Medium: investment in plants/ machines for manufacturing  industry is between INR 5 Crores to 10 Crores or investment in equipment for service industry  is between 2 crores to 5 Crores
 
Therefore small entity are those entity (other than non-natural) having investment in plants/ machines for manufacturing  industry less than 10 Crores or investment in equipment for service industry  less than 5 Crores.

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