A "Station House Diary" is a diary required to be maintained to record day to day events that take place in a police station. For effective monitoring of day to day work schedule in police stations and to monitor such works in a regulated manner and to ensure duties are discharged by the police officer as it would involve balancing rights of people, be that of the accused or that of the victim of crimes or the society in general, said "Diary" is to be maintained at all Police Stations. The Station House Diary is used to record every major and minor incident occurring within the jurisdiction of police station on a daily basis. Station House Diary is the main record of the affairs of the police station and should contain everything of importance relating to the work of the police station. Some of the entries in the general diary are amplified and recorded in other books as well but all the important things must be entered in this book. The general diary is a chronological record of the happenings at the station and for fixing the time of any particular action of the police, the entry in the general diary provides an important source of evidence.
Chapter-XX of Police Manual describes Station House Diary at paragraphs-970 and 971 and it prescribes the mode, manner and method as well as format in which Station House Diary is required to be maintained. It reads as under:
"STATION HOUSE DIARY - CONTENTS
970. (i) In the Station House Diary (Form No. 66), should be entered in regular sequenced in point of time, the work done at the Station and the information received. Details of cognizable complaints or investigations already given in the First Information Book and the case diary need not be reported in the Station House Diary, but a gist of the information and a record of occurrences in the Station in connection with those cases, such as the receipt of information, the arrest of persons, the production of prisoner, the effecting of searches, seizures or the departure for or return from, enquiry of investigating officers, particulars such as parades and inspections held or attended, attendance at courts including submission of reports and charge sheets in the Court, town patrols, assistance to officers of other Police Stations, etc., should be entered. Information received and action taken in non-cognizable cases as well as information received regarding accidents, accidental strikes, deaths, processions, disappearance of persons and fires (where there is no reason to suspect the commission of a cognizable offence), the dispatch and return of Constables on beat duty with a note of the checking of their beat and note books, (a record being made of any information obtained by them), the time of arrival and departure at the Station of Head Constables and Station Writers, should be entered in the Station House Diary.
(ii) The Station House Diary, is, in fact, a diary of daily events which should be entered as they occur and so provide an account of the work done in the Station. When the Station House Officer leaves the Station for whatever purpose, he should make a note of the fact and state on what duty, if any, he is proceeding and who has been placed in charge of the Station during his absence. He must also clearly note to which place he has left, so that it should be possible to locate him without any difficulty. In the absence of the Station House Officer, the senior officer present shall be placed in charge, under Section 2(o) of the Cr.P.C. The latter should enter in the Station House Diary the work done by him at the Station in the absence of the Police Inspector/Police Sub-Inspector SHO."
COPY TO BE FORWARDED
(iii) The Station House Diary of a day should cover 24 hours from mid-night to midnight and a copy of it should be dispatched daily at the earliest after being closed, to the Sub-Divisional Police Officer, through the Circle Inspector with an abstract of duty done by the Station Staff (Form No. 26). It should be duplicated by carbon process. The abstract of duty form for use in the Railway Police is Form No. 67.
(iv) "The presence of any outsider in a Rural Police Station between dusk and dawn and in an Urban Police Station between 10 p.m. and dawn should be accounted for in the Station House Diary with reasons for his presence. Supervisory Officers who visit Police Stations by surprise should ensure on the correctness of the entries and record their remarks, if any, for suitable action."
DUTY OF SUB-DIVISIONAL POLICE OFFICER AND CIRCLE INSPECTOR
971. The Circle Inspector is chiefly responsible for checking Station House Diaries. If he has any remarks to make on a diary it should be returned in original to the Station House Officer for his reply. The Station House Officer will copy the remarks of the Inspector together with his reply there to on the copy of the Station House Diary in the Station and return the original received from the Circle Inspector with his reply. The Circle Inspector should make an extract of any facts of importance reported in the Station House Diary, in his own daily diary. After check by the Circle Inspector, the Station House Diary should be submitted to the Sub-Divisional Police Officer, who will scrutinize it daily and send it to the District Police Office on the 20th of every month for record. Where there is no Sub-Divisional Officer, the Superintendent will check these diaries. Superior officers should at their inspections or periodically, call for and peruse the Station House Diary and satisfy themselves whether the check exercised has been adequate. Whenever the Police Inspector is the Station House Officer, the Sub-Divisional Police Officer will scrutinize the diary."
IN THE HIGH COURT OF KARNATAKA (KALABURAGI BENCH)
Criminal Petition No. 8747/2015
Decided On: 03.02.2016
IrfanVs.State of Karnataka
Hon'ble Judges/Coram:Aravind Kumar, J.
Citation: 2016 CRLJ(NOC)328 KAR
