In what could be called as a lapse on the part of the Station House Officer (SHO)’s duty to check all the First Information Reports (FIRs) registered in his police station, the SHO of lajpat Nagar police station has been ordered to appear before a Delhi court and to give a written explanation after a case under Section 33 of the Delhi Excise Act was registered wrongly under Section 33 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860.
Sources said SHO Kishan Pal had signed the FIR registered on January 11 this year by mistake without noticing the Acts column of the FIR as most of the Excise Act cases come under Section 33.
The contents of FIR number 0017/2017 said that the accused lallan Yadav was arrested by a police team around 8 pm at Jal Vihar terminal on January 11 while he was carrying 36 bottles of illegal liquor. Accordingly an FIR under Section 33 of the Delhi Excise Act was registered but on the first page, under the Acts column it was written IPC 1860 and under the Sections column it was written 33.
“It is a clerical error as Section 33 of the Indian Penal Code means ‘Acts’ and ‘Omission’ whereas a person booked under Section 33 of the Delhi Excise Act would suggest that he was caught carrying illegal liquor” said a police official.
This type of error can cause problems in the case later as the counsel of the accused might say that his client was not booked under Section 33 of the IPC. Hence another FIR with the required corrections will be registered after the SHO appears before the court to give a written explanation on January 20,” said the police official, on conditions of anonymity.
Such types of clerical errors or lapses on part of the SHO is not a routine matter and happens rarely, added the official.