Supreme Court Stays MP HC Direction Mandating IPS-Level Supervision Of All Serious Crime Probes

A bench of Justice KV Viswanathan and Justice Nongmeikapam Kotiswar Singh directed the state to submit an SOP which balances the High Court's objective of preventing careless and sloppy investigation with the constraints on available senior-level officers.

“The State of Madhya Pradesh is directed to furnish Standard Operative Procedure within three weeks without prejudice to their rights and contentions which they desire to put in place to achieve the object which the High Court sought to achieve, while at the same time ensuring that the available manpower among the senior level officers are adequately apportioned and utilized”, the Court ordered.

The Court issued notice in a plea by State of Madhya Pradesh challenging the High Court's direction in a bail case.

In order to ensure that investigations are not left to the whims of the investigating officer, the High Court had directed the Director General of Police, to ensure that each investigation in serious crimes is supervised by a two-member team consisting of an experienced IPS officer and other police officer not below the rank of Sub-Inspector of Police.

The investigating officer had to report to the team and keep it apprised of the progress of the investigation to receive inputs and plug loopholes in time. The team, along with the investigating officer, was to be held responsible for any lapses.

Additional Advocate General for Madhya Pradesh Nachiketa Joshi submitted before the Supreme Court that the State was not aggrieved by the grant of bail to the accused in the case by the aforementioned direction of the Single Judge which was later affirmed by the Division Bench of the High Court.

The State submitted that this direction was extremely unworkable. According to data from the National Crime Record Bureau for the year 2022, there were 4,88,966 criminal cases registered in Madhya Pradesh, of which 38,116 were categorized as heinous or serious.

The AAG pointed out that only 63 IPS officers at the Superintendent of Police level are available in the districts, and if they are required to personally supervise each serious crime investigation, it would become extremely onerous and seriously interfere with their other official duties.

He further submitted that the State's counsel in the High Court had suggested that supervision could be done at the level of a Deputy Superintendent of Police or a Sub-Divisional Officer of Police. He argued that such an arrangement would still ensure proper supervision and avoid lapses in investigation, as intended by the High Court, while also being practically implementable. The Supreme Court observed that this submission merits consideration.

The Court directed the State of Madhya Pradesh to furnish a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) within three weeks. The impugned direction issued by the High Court has been stayed till July 14, 2025. The matter will be listed for further consideration on that date.

Case no. – Special Leave Petition (Criminal) Diary No. 18819/2025

Case Title – State of Madhya Pradesh v. Sunit @ Sumit Singh