The main legal point established in the judgment is the requirement for the Delhi Police to strictly follow a procedure for issuance of notices under Sections 41A, 91, 160, and 175 of the CrPC, and the issuance of guidelines to ensure transparency in the working of the police machinery and justice to suspect accused persons and those required to appear before the police.

GITA MITTAL, J.

1. This writ petition has been filed under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution of India by the petitioner who claims that he, alongwith his parents and relatives, has faced proceedings before the Crime Against Women Cell, Nanak Pura, New Delhi at the instance of his wife. It is complained that despite regularly attending all sessions fixed at this Cell and extending full cooperation, the proceedings culminated in registration of a FIR being FIR No. 313/16 by the Police Station Patel Nagar, New Delhi under Section 498A/406 of the Indian Penal Code.

2. It is stated in the writ petition that the petitioner was regularly summoned to the Police Station to join investigations, without a single written notice under Section 41A of the CrPC being served upon him. As such, the petitioner complains that he joined investigation on eight dates which have been detailed in para 9 of the writ petition.

3. Grievance stands made that several documents relied upon by the petitioner in his defence which were tendered by him during the proceedings before the Crime Against Women Cell during the investigation. No receipt thereof was given to the petitioner and these documents having a critical bearing on the case were not made part of the record by the police.

In those above circumstances, the petitioner had no material or evidence to support his contention that he had regularly joined investigation and also that he had tendered several documents which manifested that he was innocent in the case.

4. Amongst the documents relied upon by the petitioner as having been handed over to the police are details of the recovery memo; list of stridhan articles, text messages exchanged between the petitioner and her investigating officer.

5. Reference is made to Circular No. 08/2011 dated 10th February, 2011 issued by the Delhi Police. It is complained by the petitioner that not only are the directions contained in this and other Circulars not being properly worked by local police stations and officers but also that the directions contained in the Circulars by themselves are wholly insufficient to ensure protection of the rights of the persons who are called for enquiries or are the subject matter of criminal investigations.

6. It has been submitted by Mr. Nikhil Borwankar, learned counsel who appears for the petitioner that the petitioner’s experience at the Crime Against Women Cell and the police station highlight the fact that this was a practice followed in all criminal enquiries and investigations undertaken by the Delhi Police necessitating the filing of the present writ petition in Public Interest making a prayer to this court for inter alia directions to the Delhi Police to modify its Circular No.08/2011 dated 10th February, 2011 and to frame fair and balanced rules with regard to issuance and service of notices under Section 41A and Section 160 of the CrPC.

7. The petitioner consequently took a pro-active stand and initiated queries under the Right to Information Act resulting in his obtaining copies of various circulars of the Delhi Police governing the working of Section 41 of the CrPC. In this regard, the petitioner has drawn our attention to above Circular No.8/2011 referred which is concerned with “provisions of arrest as per the CrPC (Amendment) Act, 2008” (page 400) and the Circular no. 30A of 2014 dated 17th November, 2014 (page 404) which is concerned with “Directions Relating to Arrest in Pending Investigation Cases.”

8. Before examining the grievance made by the petitioner, it would be useful to set out the statutory provisions which relate to the requirement of appearance before police officer of any person, for expediency, we extract hereunder the provisions of Sections 41A, 91, 160 and 175 of CrPC :

“41A. Notice of appearance before police officer. - (1) The police officer shall, in all cases where the arrest of a person is not required under the provisions of sub-section (1) of section 41, issue a notice directing th