SC agrees to hear woman advocate's plea on non-lodging of FIR

New Delhi: Supreme Court on Monday decided to hear on January 19 the complaint of a woman advocate that Delhi Police had not lodged an FIR into a nine month-old incident in which she was allegedly assaulted at a police station by cops and henchmen of an influential person.

"We will hear it next week on Monday," a bench comprising Chief Justice HL Dattu and Justice AK Sikri said after newly appointed President of the Supreme Court Bar Association(SCBA) and senior advocate Dushyant Dave complained that the police has not even registered a mandatory FIR.

"What is wrong is non-registration of FIR," Dave said while referring to apex court judgement that police cannot refuse to lodge FIR.

"Why an FIR is not registered after a long time," he said and added that all these required a look by the CBI.

The case related to advocate Ambika Das, who had lodged s complaint with the Commissioner of Police that she was assaulted on April 4, 2014 at Lajpat Nagar Police Station in South Delhi when she had gone to serve a court order relating to a property dispute.

The apex court had treated as petition a letter written to its Registry by the lawyer in which she had narrated the incident.

It had, on May 9 last year, taken a serious note of Delhi Police's inaction in protecting the woman advocate who was allegedly assaulted at a police station by policemen and henchmen of an influential person against whom she had gone to serve the court's stay order in a property dispute case.

Taking suo-motu cognizance of the "gravity" of the matter the court had also directed Delhi Police Commissioner BS Bassi to look into the complaint filed by the lawyer on April 14, 2014 and asked the DCP (East) to ensure that "no harm is caused to the advocate".

It had noted that the advocate had immediately made the complaint to the police by dialing 100 number and on April 6, she had also forwarded an e-mail complaint and finally she had brought the incident to the notice of the police chief on April 14.

The court had appointed senior advocate Vijay Hansaria as amicus curiae for assistance in the matter in which the SCBA has also sought severe action against the erring cops.