Rajasthan High Court: In a criminal miscellaneous petition, dealing with the recommendations of the Committee report for two separate wings of police for investigation and law and order maintenance, a Single Bench of Anoop Kumar Dhand, J., issued directions to Chief Secretary and Additional Chief Secretary, Home Department, Rajasthan, to increase the cadre strength of the police and investigator staff, and establish well-equipped investigation labs in the State of Rajasthan for expeditious investigation, holding that lack of investigation labs in the State causes unnecessary delay in investigation process and that the State is under constitutional obligation to provide adequate infrastructure and trained stakeholders for fair and speedy investigation as the delay in investigation, due to lack of adequate infrastructure for investigation, violates the right of fair investigation and speedy trial.
Background
In a previous hearing on 27 April 2026, citing the 154th report by Law Commission and Supreme Court’s judgment in Prakash Singh v. Union of India, (2006) 8 SCC 1, the Court passed an order issuing directions to State Government for separation of investigation work from law and order, i.e., investigating police shall be separated from the law and order police to ensure speedier investigation, better expertise and improved rapport with people.
The order advanced the Supreme Court’s directions to Central and State Governments for framing of appropriate legislation or policy for separation of investigation wing from the police wing for maintaining law and order.
The Court observed in the order that the investigation of several cases could not be completed expeditiously because the same investigating officer had also been assigned other duties of maintaining law and order in the area concerned.
The Court, in the interest of better administration of investigation and maintaining law and order, in another matter, had directed Chief Secretary and Principal Secretary, Department of Home Affairs and Director General of Police (DGP), Rajasthan, to form appropriate policy for separation of police investigation wings from the police and create a separate wing for maintaining law and order, until the new Police Act is framed.
Thus, order in the previous hearing, directed the authorities to apprise the Court regarding steps taken so far for expeditious investigation and establishment of two wings.
Analysis
In the light of the order passed on 27 April 2026, it was submitted by the authorities that a committee was constituted by DGP for compliance of the directions. The Committee referred to reports from 4 States, i.e., Kerala, Punjab, Delhi and Bihar and made recommendations to organise each police station into 3 functional units — law and order, investigation and administrative unit, for which 20 police stations were identified for pilot project.
The recommendation report necessitating structural reforms in police functioning was perused by the Court. The report stated —
“Indian Police Stations operate on an undifferentiated model in which the same set of officers register FIRs, supervise beat patrolling, manage communal incidents, perform VIP security duties, control religious processions, and also acts as Investigating Officers responsible for evidence collection, witness examination, and filing of and charge-sheets and Final Closure Reports within statutory timelines. The Investigation function, which is intellectually demanding and is time-bound, is consistently subordinated to Law and Order duties, due to its emergent nature and huge public visibility. The result is poor quality of investigation, low conviction rates, and persistent pendency of cases under investigation.”
Several recommendations on staffing, operational discipline, safeguards, etc. were given by the Committee in the report.
The Court observed that the recommendations included providing of manpower, infrastructure and training to all the stakeholders. The cadre strength of the police was required to be increased by way of fresh recruitment and filling up of the posts already advertised at the earliest.
The Court noted that for expeditious disposal of the cases pending for more than 5 years, directions were issued to all the stakeholders for expeditious investigation of the pending matters by submitting the compliance report formed by the Additional Superintendent of Police, Criminal Investigation Department (Crime Branch) [CID (CB)], Jaipur and officer in charge of the instant case.
The Court opined that since the criminals are adopting latest and advanced techniques to commit offences, then the investigation mechanism of the police needs to be strengthened too, with modern and well-equipped investigation labs having adequate scientific facilities.
The Court observed that in the absence of investigation labs in Rajasthan, the Department is compelled to conduct its investigation based on the reports and analysis carried out by the labs situated in other States, causing unnecessary delay. On the point of cadre strength, the Court stated that the cadre strength of the investigators or staff needs to be increased so that the forensic science laboratory reports can be received at the earliest and the conclusion report can be submitted expeditiously.
Thus, the Court held that latest investigating labs are required to be established in the State, having adequate infrastructure and trained stakeholders so that the investigation can be done expeditiously and brought to its logical end at the earliest. The State is under constitutional obligation to provide adequate infrastructure for fair and speedy investigation as the delay in investigation, due to lack of adequate infrastructure for investigation, violates the right of fair investigation and speedy trial.
The Court directed the order to be sent to the Chief Secretary, Additional Chief Secretary, Department of Home, Government of Rajasthan and DGP to look into the matter from all corners and to develop and establish appropriate and well-equipped labs in Rajasthan for investigation, in the interest of public at large.
The next hearing date is 21 July 2026.
[Prem Prakash Bidyasar v. State of Rajasthan, Criminal Miscellaneous (Petition) No. 4784/2019, decided on 21-5-2026]
Judgment Authored by: Justice Anoop Kumar Dhand
Advocates who appeared in this case :
For Petitioners: Jaswant Singh, Harendra Singh
For Respondents: Rajesh Choudhary, J.S. Rathore, Gaurav Gupta, Vinod Kumar Sharma, Anirudh Singh, V.K. Singh, Vikas Sharma, Vipin Pandey, Harendra Mahawar, Shiv Lal Bairwa, Puran Mal, Vinod Kumar, Madan Lal, Mukesh Kharadiya
