The direction was given by justices A M Khanvilkar and A R Joshi, who clubbed a group of 31 petitions, which sought to transfer the probe from local police to CID or other agencies.
The judges had clubbed the cases as they wanted the state government to set up a mechanism or avenues to redress the grievances of complainants on transfer of probe before they approached the high court.
The judges told the state to consider these 31 petitions as a 'test case' and decide whether it would be justified to transfer the probe to CID or other agencies.
The state prayed that there was already a mechanism in place to redress such grievances and urged the bench to direct the complainants to exhaust the existing avenues before they approached the court.
In an affidavit, the state said that a circular was issued on June 22 directing that a "Grievances Redressal Day" shall be observed once a week in each police station, wherein all investigating officers would remain present to attend to complaints of the people. Such information would be displayed at the police station or the website for public knowledge.
In each district, grievances can be lodged by people with superintendent of police, who is authorised to monitor the probe and transfer internally any ongoing investigation or direct any police station in the district to probe any case, the affidavit contended.
Similarly, in Commissionerate areas, the respective commissioners of police are empowered like SPs to transfer the probe to any police station, the state said while explaining the mechanism to redress public grievances. (More)
