Supreme Court Stays MP HC Order Mandating IPS-Led Supervision Of Serious Crime Probes

The Bench of Justice KV Viswanathan and Justice NK Singh issued notice in the matter and sought a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) from the State of Madhya Pradesh within three weeks to ensure effective supervision of serious crime investigations without overburdening senior police officers.

Facts of the Case

The case arose from an order of a Single Judge of the Madhya Pradesh High Court, later affirmed by a Division Bench, which had directed that in each district, all serious crime investigations be supervised by a two-member team headed by an experienced IPS officer not below the rank of Superintendent of Police, along with another officer not below the rank of Sub-Inspector.

The team, the High Court had said, would be responsible, along with the Investigating Officer, for plugging investigative lapses and ensuring accountability.

During the hearing 

Appearing for the Madhya Pradesh government, Additional Advocate General (AAG) Nachiketa Joshi submitted that while the State was not challenging the bail granted to the accused in the underlying case, it was aggrieved by the "extremely onerous" supervisory requirement imposed on IPS officers.

Highlighting the scale of the issue, the State pointed out that according to 2022 National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data, Madhya Pradesh registered 4,88,966 criminal cases, out of which 38,116 were classified as heinous or serious. However, the State has only 63 IPS officers at the Superintendent of Police (SP) level available across its districts.

The AAG argued that requiring IPS officers to personally supervise each serious crime investigation would severely impact their ability to perform other critical administrative and policing duties.

Instead, he submitted, the desired objective of preventing lapses in investigations could be met by delegating supervisory responsibilities to officers of the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Police (DySP) or Sub-Divisional Officers of Police.

Taking note of the State’s submissions, the Supreme Court observed that the concern expressed by the High Court to improve the quality of investigations was valid, but the manner of implementation required a practical approach.

"The submission merits consideration," the Court remarked, directing the Madhya Pradesh government to frame a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) that balances the objective of curbing sloppy investigations with the practical constraints of manpower deployment.

Until further orders, the Court stayed the operation of the High Court’s direction regarding IPS-led supervision of serious crime investigations.

The matter will now be taken up for further hearing on July 14, 2025.