Ashwani Kumar Singh, J.—The present writ petition in the nature of Public Interest Litigation (for short ‘PIL’) has been filed by the petitioner for commanding the respondents to ensure that day-to-day investigation of any criminal case carried out by the officers of Bihar Police and the entries thereof transcripted in the police case diary should be maintained in a digital form so as to provide better aid in dispensation as well as in the administration of justice.

2. The petitioner, a practicing advocate of this Court, has appeared in person. He submitted that in the present contemporary era of digitization/computerization, the Bihar Police is using the outdated system of maintaining the records in manual form which adversely affects the administration of criminal justice. He contended that the case diary is an important piece of document wherein day to day proceedings of investigation is maintained by the Investigating Officer investigating a criminal case. Since it is maintained by the officers of Bihar Police in a hand written form, it has been noticed many a times that case diary maintained by the Investigating Officer is not legible and thereby it causes difficulty in the administration of justice. Since the police officer who investigates a criminal case either fully or partly is entitled to look into the case diary containing the details of the investigation and refresh his memory while deposing as a witness before the trial court, in case it is not legible, he will not be able to understand the case and depose before court especially given the fact that trial in a criminal case takes years to complete. He further contended that the police case diary should be prepared in a digital form instead of hand written so as to facilitate the dispensation of justice. He contended that States like Punjab and Haryana keeping in view the relevancy of such method adopted the system which requires the maintenance of case diary in a digital form and to the best of the knowledge of the petitioner the same is maintained by the National Informatics Centre. He further contended that he had represented through email on 18.12.2018 before all respondents with a request that every SHO of Police Station be directed to prepare the case diary in a digital form, but, none paid any heed to on his representation except Superintendent of Police, Katihar. He further contended that though digitization appears to be a difficult job, once the same is done, it would be beneficial in the administration of justice.

3. In the counter affidavit, respondent nos. 3, 4 and 6 admitted that many a times, the case diary maintained by the Investigating Officer is not legible. They admitted that the reliefs sought by the petitioner is acceptable in principle. However, their contention is that there are many problems and challenges in digitization of the case diary. In Writ Petition (Crl) No. 68 of 2016, the Supreme Court by its order dated 07.09.2016, directed that the copies of the FIRs, unless the offence is sensitive in nature, like sexual offences, offences pertaining to insurgency, terrorism and of that category offences under POCSO Act and such other offences should be uploaded on the police website and if there is no such website on the official website of the State Government within 24 hours of the registration of the FIR so that the accused or any person connected with the same can download the FIR and file appropriate application before the Court as per law for redressal of his grievances. The Court clarified that in case there is a connectivity problem due to geographical location or there is some other unavoidable difficulty, the time can be extended up to 48 hours. It is further stated in the counter affidavit that in the State of Bihar after registration of the FIR it is being uploaded on the website within 24 hours in view of the direction given by the Supreme Court in the aforesaid Writ Petition (Crl) No. 68 of 2016.

4. In the counter affidavit it is