IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Crl. M. No.4916-M of 2009 Date of Decision:23.2.2010 Tarsem Singh .... Petitioner Versus State of Punjab and others .... Respondents CORAM: Hon'ble Ms. Justice Nirmaljit Kaur Present: Mr. G.K. Saini, Advocate for the petitioner. Mr. K.S. Pannu, D.A.G. Punjab. **** 1.Whether Reporters of Local Newspapers may be allowed to see the judgment? 2.To be referred to the Reporters or not? 3.Whether the judgment should be reported in the Digest? NIRMALJIT KAUR, J. The only prayer made in the instant petition is for issuance of direction to respondents No.1 to 3 to register a criminal case against respondents No.7 to 17. Without going into the merits of the case, it would be necessary to take into consideration the provision of Section 156(3) of the Criminal Code of Procedure, which reads as under: “156(3) Any Magistrate empowered under Section 190 may order such an investigation as above mentioned.” The above provision shows that the Magistrate has the power to inquire into or try under the provisions of Chapter XII. Under Section 156 (3), the Magistrate is also empowered under Section 190 to order investigation and direct the registration of the FIR. Hon'ble the Supreme Court in the case of Sakiri Vasu v. State of Uttar Pradesh and others, reported as (2008) 2 Supreme Court Cases 409, held as under:- “11. In this connection we would like to state that if a person has a grievance that the police station is not registering his FIR under Section 154 Cr.P.C., then he can approach the Superintendent of Police under Section 154(3) Crl. M. No.4916-M of 2009 -2- Cr.P.C. by an application in writing. Even if that does not yield any satisfactory result in the sense that either the FIR is still not registered, or that even after registering it no proper investigation is held, it is open to the aggrieved person to file an application under Section 156(3) Cr.P.C. before the learned Magistrate concerned. If such an application under Section 156(3) is filed before the Magistrate, the Magistrate can direct the FIR to be registered and also can direct a proper investigation to be made, in a case where, according to the aggrieved person, no proper investigation was made. The Magistrate can also under the same provision monitor the investigation to ensure a proper investigation. 15. Section 156(3) provides for a check by the Magistrate on the police performing its duties under Chapter XII Cr.P.C. In cases where the Magistrate finds that the police has not done its duty of investigating the case at all, or has not done it satisfactorily, he can issue a direction to the police to do the investigation properly, and can monitor the same. 16. The power in the Magistrate to order further investigation under Section 156(3) is an independent power, and does not affect the power of the investigating officer to further investigate the case even after submission of his report vide Section 173(8). Hence the Magistrate can order re- opening of the investigation even after the police submits the final report, vide State of Bihar v. A.C. Saldanna AIR 1980 SC 326.” In view of the above and taking into account the facts of the present case, the petitioner has the remedy to approach the Magistrate for the same relief. Accordingly, the present petition stands disposed of with liberty to the petitioner to avail of alternative remedy in accordance with law, if so advised. 23.2.2010 ( NIRMALJIT KAUR ) rajeev JUDGE