The Supreme Court on Monday said there was a “complete breakdown of rule of law in Uttar Pradesh” after coming across FIRs filed by the state police in civil cases.A bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justices Sanjay Kumar and K V Viswanathan asked the director general of police and the station house officer of a Gautam Budh Nagar district police station to file affidavits, explaining why the criminal law was set in motion in a civil dispute.
āThere is a complete breakdown of rule of law in Uttar Pradesh. Converting a civil matter into a criminal case is not acceptable,ā the CJI said.
The bench was irked after a lawyer said the FIR was filed as civil disputes take a long time to settle.
This is wrong what is happening in UP. Everyday civil suits are being converted to criminal cases. It is absurd, merely not giving money cannot be turned into an offence,ā the CJI said.
āWe will direct the IO (investigating officer) to come to the witness box. Let the IO stand in the witness box and make out a criminal caseā¦this is not the way you file chargesheets,ā the CJI said, “let the IO learn a lesson”.
The bench further asked, “Just because civil cases take long, you will file an FIR and set the criminal law in motion?”