Confirm if affidavits are filed with plaints: Karnataka HC

BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court said that magistrates have to confirm before entertaining a private complaint whether an affidavit is filed along with the complaint and that the complainant was left without options but to knock their doors for seeking directions to register the complaints and refer them for investigation. If not, the time has come to ‘nip frivolous registration of crime, in its bud’, the court added.

This order came as the high court is flooded with cases challenging directions under Section 156(3) of the CrPC by the magistrates referring those cases for investigation by the jurisdictional police on a private complaints being filed without accompanying affidavits.

Justice M Nagaprasanna passed the order while allowing the petitions filed by B Sheshanna and others, questioning the orders passed by the magistrate over contract on lifting water from Tungabhadra river under Lift Irrigation Scheme, near Holaluru village of Shivamogga district to register a private complaint invoking Section 200 of CrPC against the petitioners and taking cognisance of the offences on January 4, 2019. “There is a wide difference between a verification and an affidavit. The affidavit is a legally signed and notarized document, whereas, verification is only the statement of the complainant that whatever he has said is true,” court said.