' Through this Constitutional petition, transfer of an investigation being conducted by one police officer is sought to another Police Officer.
2. The Code of Criminal Procedure of 1898, in Part V, relating to information to the police and their powers to investigate in Chapter XIV lays down in section 154:-- "154. Information in cognizable cases.--- Every information relating to the commission of a cognizable offence if given orally to an officer in charge of a police station, shall be reduced to writing by him or under his direction and be read over to the informant and every such information, whether given in writing or reduced to writing as aforesaid, shall be signed by the person giving it, and the substance thereof shall be entered in a book to be kept by such officer in such form as the Provincial Government may prescribe in this behalf."
' Section 156 provides that:-- "Investigation into cognizable case.--- Any Officer Incharge of a Police Station may, without the order of a Magistrate, investigate any cognizable case which a Court having jurisdiction over the local area within the limits of such station would have power to inquire into or try under the provisions of Chapter XV relating to the place of inquiry or trial.
(2) No proceedings of a police officer in any such a case shall at any stage be called in question on the ground that the case was one which such officer was not empowered under this section to investigate.
(3) Any Magistrate empowered under section 190 may order such an investigation as abovementioned.
(4) Notwithstanding anything contained in subsections (1), (2) or (3) no police officer shall investigate an offence under section 497 or section 498 of the Pakistan Penal Code, except upon a complaint made by the husband of the woman, or in his absence by some person who had the case of such woman on his behalf at the time when such offence was committed."
' Section 173 provides that:- "Report of Police Officer.--- (1) Every investigation under this Chapter shall be completed without unnecessary delay, and, as soon as it is completed, the officer in charge of the police station shall through the Public Prosecutor,---
(a) forward to a Magistrate empowered to take cognizance of the offence on a police report a report in the form prescribed by the Provincial Government, setting forth the names of the parties, the nature of the information and the names of the person who appear to be acquainted with the circumstances of the case, and stating whether the accused (if arrested) has been forwarded in custody or has been released on his bond, and, if so, whether with or without sureties, and
(b) communicate, in such manner as may be prescribed by the Provincial Government, the action taken by him to the person, if any, by whom the information relating to the commission of the offence was first given: ' Provided that, where investigation is not completed within a period of fourteen days from the date of recording of the first information report under section 154, the Officer Incharge of the Police Station shall, within three days of the expiration of such period, forward to the Magistrate through the Public Prosecutor, an interim report in the form prescribed by the Provincial Government stating therein the result of the investigation made until then and the Court shall commence the trial on the basis of such interim report, unless for reasons to be recorded, the Court decides that the trial should not so commence.
(2) Where a superior officer of police has been appointed under section 158, the report shall, in any case in which the Provincial Government by general or special order so directs, be submitted through that officer, and he may, pending the orders of the Magistrate, direct the Officer Incharge of the Police Station to make further investigation.
(3) Whenever it appears from a report forwarded under this section that the accused has been released on his bond, the Magistrate shall make such order for the discharge of such bond or otherwise as he thinks fit.
(4) A copy of any report forwarded under this section shall, on application, be furnished to the accused before the commencement of the inquiry or trial. Provided that the same shall be paid for unless the Magistrate for some special reason thinks fit to furnish it free of cost.
(5) Where the Officer Incharge of a Police Station forwards a report under subsection (1), he shall alongwith the report produce the witnesses in the case, except the public servants, and the Magistrate shall bind such witnesses for appearance before him or some other Court on the date fixed for trial."
3. Since almost a century, the mechanism and methodology for carrying out an investigation by the police has been clearly laid down with great detail. It is for this reason that the superior Courts have been holding time and again that investigation regarding the commission of offences is both the duty as well as the prerogative of the police and is a matter which is not within the domain of the Courts.
4. It is settled law since 1945 that the police are under a statutory duty under section 154 of the Code of Criminal Procedure and have a statutory right under section 156 of the Code of Criminal Procedure to investigate a cognizable offence whenever a report is made to it disclosing the commission of a cognizable offence. To quash the police investigation on the ground that the case is false would be to act on treacherous grounds and would tantamount to an uncalled for interference by the Court with the duties of the police. Just as it is essential that everyone accused of a crime should have free access to a Court of justice so that he may be duly acquitted if found not guilty of the offence with which he is charged, so it is of utmost importance that judiciary should not within their domain and into which the law imposes upon them the duty of enquiry. The functions of the judiciary and the police are complementary not overlapping and the combination of individual liberty with a due observance of law and order is only to be obtained by leaving each to exercise its own function. The Court's functions begin when a charge is preferred before it and not until then.
' The observation and the ratio decidendi of their Lordships of the Privy Council made in the case of "Emperor v. Khawaja Nazir Ahmad AIR 1945 PC 18 has been consistently approved and followed by the superior Courts of Pakistan.
5. In the case of "M.S. Khawaja v. The State" PLD 1965 SC 287 his Lordship Mr. Justice A.R. Cornelius, the then Chief Justice of Pakistan was pleased to observe that the investigation stage is outside the purview of the Court.
' It was again held by his Lordship Mr. Justice Hamoodur Rehman, the then Chief Justice of Pakistan in the case of "Shahnaz Begum v. The Honourable Judges of the High Court of Sindh and Balochistan and another" PLD 1971 SC 677, that there is no power to quash an investigation.
' The same view has been expressed by my Lord Mr. Justice Sajjad Ali Shah, the then Chief Justice of Pakistan in the case of "Badaruddin v. The Additional Sessions Judge of Jhang" reported in PLD 1993 SC 399.
6. An essential ingredient for the assumption of jurisdiction under 4 Article 199 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan of 1973, is that this Court must be satisfied that there is no other adequate remedy provided by law. This is the sine qua non. In the absence of this essential ingredient, the High Court does not assume muchless exercise its extraordinary discretionary Constitutional jurisdiction to issue writ in the nature of direction:, declaration and habeas corpus or quo warranto.
7. If a citizen is not satisfied with the method or manner in which an investigation is being carried out by a Police Officer an immediate and adequate remedy is available by making a representation to the next higher police officer. The police are a statutory organization set up under the Police Act and Rules having its own hierarchy to look after its own affairs including matters pertaining to law and order and investigation into the commission of offences which must culminate in the final report of the Investigating Officer to be submitted to a Competent Court for trial without inordinate delay. Interference in this process by the Courts would he like throwing a hammer in the spokes of the wheel and dragging the whole process to a grinding halt which is not the intention of the Constitution and the law.
' There is no merit in this petition, which is dismissed in limine.