Delhi High Court: The present writ petition was filed on behalf of petitioner under Article 226 of the Constitution read with Section 482 of the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973 (‘CrPC’) seeking to issue a writ/order/direction in the nature of Mandamus directing the Inquiry Magistrate inquiring into the custodial death of Sheikh Sahadat, to conclude the inquiry expeditiously. Jyoti Singh, J., directed that the Magisterial inquiry into the death of Sheikh Sahadat should be concluded as expeditiously as possible and not later than three months from the date of this order. The Court stated that it hoped and expected that the matter would be looked into with empathy, sensitivity, and seriousness.
Petitioner is a 22-year-old widow and her husband Sheikh Sahadat, died on 23-7-2023 allegedly in the custody of the police officials of Police Station Subhash Place. It was urged that the Magisterial inquiry into the custodial death of petitioner’s husband had commenced on 23-7-2023 and was pending till date, despite passage of nearly nine months, with no progress and/or hope of conclusion and the application under Section 156(3) of CrPC was also pending and till date, the FIR had not been registered.
Counsel for petitioner submitted that the order dated 22-12-2023 passed by the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, North West District, Rohini Courts (‘the CMM’), reflected that the FIR was not being registered awaiting the conclusion of the Magisterial inquiry and the FSL report. Thus, it was submitted that it shows complete insensitivity of the State to a serious issue, where a 32-year-old person was found dead allegedly in police custody with black and blue marks of beatings all over his back and chest and swellings on his hands and legs, a fact recorded in a video by the deceased’s family, on their visit to the mortuary.
The Court after considering that the Magisterial inquiry had commenced on 23-7-2023 and was still pending and on the account of pendency of the inquiry, the CMM was not proceeding on the application under Section 156(3) of CrPC, directed that the Magisterial inquiry into the death of Sheikh Sahadat should be concluded as expeditiously as possible and not later than three months from the date of this order.
The Court further directed the CMM, where the application under Section 156(3) of CrPC was pending, to proceed with the matter expeditiously including issuing a direction to the Director, FSL to furnish the report without any delay. The Court further requested the Director, FSL, to look into the matter and ensure that the FSL report was sent expeditiously to the Court concerned.
The Court stated that it hoped and expected that the Magistrate dealing with the inquiry and the CMM would look into the matter with empathy, sensitivity, and seriousness, required to be accorded and would act expeditiously.
[Setara Bibi v. State (NCT of Delhi), W.P.(Crl) 1224 of 2024, Order dated 23-4-2024]
Advocates who appeared in this case :
For the Petitioner: Ms. Rebecca John, Senior Advocate with Mr. Dushyant Kumar, Ms. Mangla Verma, Ms. Sayara Srikumar, Ms. Joicy, Ms. Anushka Baruah and Mr. Pravir Singh, Advocates.
For the Respondents: Mr. Sanjeev Bhandari, ASC for State with Ms. Anvita Bhandari, Mr. Kunal Mittal, Mr. Arjit Sharma and Mr. Vaibhav Vats, Advocates with Insp. Dheeraj Yadav, PS: Subhash Place.
Buy Constitution of India HERE
Buy Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 HERE
