Uttaranchal High Court: A Division Bench of Alok Singh and N.S. Dhanik, JJ. dismissed a writ petition filed by the 66-year-old petitioner, who sought mandamus against respondent authority to provide police protection to her as respondents threatened her.
The petitioner contended that her estranged son and daughter-in-law were disowned by the husband of the petitioner from all the movable and immovable properties by way of public notice. She further alleged that she had an apprehension of being killed by the respondents.
The Deputy Advocate General for the State argued that the present petition was not maintainable before this Court, in as much as the petitioner had efficacious and alternative remedy; and in view of the law laid down by the Supreme Court in Sakiri Vasu v. State of U.P., (2008) 2 SCC 409 and Lata Singh v. State of U.P., (2006) 5 SCC 475, the petitioner cannot be granted police protection because she had an efficacious and alternative remedy. It was further contended that the petitioner should have registered an FIR if she apprehended any sort of threat to her life. The counsel submitted that the petitioner may approach the Superintendent of Police under Section 154(3) CrPC by an application in writing; even if that did not give any satisfactory result in the sense that either the FIR was not registered, or that even after registering it no proper investigation was held, it was open to the petitioner to file an application under Section 156 (3) CrPC before the Magistrate concerned. If an application under Section 156(3) CrPC was filed before the Magistrate, the Magistrate would direct the FIR to be registered and also a proper investigation to be made, in a case where, according to the aggrieved person, no proper investigation was made.
The Court held that, it was not a case where the Senior Superintendent of Police concerned had to be directed to provide necessary protection to the petitioner and the petitioner was not permitted to abandon or bypass that remedy and invoke the jurisdiction of the High Court under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, when she had an efficacious and adequate remedy open to her.[Sahjahan Begum v. State of Uttarakhand, 2019 SCC OnLine Utt 567, decided on 08-07-2019]
