SOP Station House Management by Kerala Police

7
PETITION ENQUIRIES & REPORTS
(Circular Nos: 19/2017 &
43/2017)
Petition means a formal
written request from
one or more persons to an
authority having power.
Any person having complaint
will submit petition to thè authority
that could he]p him or
redress his grievances.
Petitions are submitted by
members of public directly in
the Police Stations or to superiors
at various levels or to
the Government. Instructions
have been issued by the State
Police Chief that all petitions
received, should be entered in
thè register, giving particulars
such as
(1) date and time of receipt
(2) name and address of
the petitioner
(3)name and address of
the counter petitioner
(4) allegations in brief
(5)action taken
(6) report if any due to
any authority
(7) date of dispatch of report
etc.
A monthly statement has
to be submitted to the District
Police Chief indicating
(1) the number of petitions of
previous months pending
(2) the number of petitions
received during the
month
(3) the number of petitions
in which action was
taken or enquired during the
month
(4) number of reports sent
and (5) the number of petitions
at the end of the month.
The petitions can be classified
into three categories (1)
Personal petitions
(2) Anonymous petitions
and
(3) Pseudonymous petitions.
While preference has to be
given to personal petitions:
anonymous and pseudonymous
petitions cannot be ignored.
In the second type,
people do not wish to disclose
their identity but like
to communicate some information.
At times threats
are made in these petitions.
However, enquiries should be
made in the second and third
type of petitions to know the
truth and many times, they
may be found useful in knowing
the disputes or crimes of
underworld and in taking appropriate
action.
7.1 Action to be
taken
On receipt of a petition,
acknowledgement has to be
given or sent to the petitioner
that his petition dated so and
81
so was received on that date.
That a case in crime number
under section(s)-was registered
or that it is under enquiry
and that he would be informed
of the result of either
investigation or of enquiries in
due course. Having received
a petition, the recipient officer
should study the contents.
Whether it is received directly
or from superior. If the allegations
made therein disclose
occurrence of a cognizable offence,
a crime case should be
registered. The Superior Officer’s
endorsements viz.,
(1) for necessary action
(2) for enquiry and report
(3) for disposal do not
mean that are superior does
not want a case to be registered,
and any endorsement
should not deter the officer
to whom the petition is endorsed
from registering a case
and from taking up the investigation.
Failure to register a case
would amount to negligence
towards duties. The officer
in-charge of a Police Station
should remember that he does
not require anybody’s permission
to register a case, if a cognizable
offence is reported. If
a case was already registered
for the same incident, the contents
of the petition should
be gone through to know,