New Delhi: Magistrates directing the police to register FIR on private complaints and directing enquiry, creates a very unhealthy situation in the society and also reflects the erroneous approach of the former, the SC has held.

“It also encourages the unscrupulous and unprincipled litigants to file complaints to harass certain persons,” said a bench of Justices Dipak Misra and Prafull C. Pant, quashing the enquiry ordered by a trial court in UP, which was upheld by the Allahabad High Court.

Making it mandatory for private complainants to file an affidavit in support of their allegations, the bench said “a stage has come in this country where applications under Section 156(3) of CrPC are to be supported by an affidavit duly sworn by the applicant who seeks the invocation of the jurisdiction of the magistrate.”