Supreme Court Holds Police Cannot Investigate PCPNDT Offences; Appropriate Authority Has Exclusive Jurisdiction

Case Snapshot

• Case Name: State of Uttar Pradesh & Anr. v. Brij Pal Singh & Anr.

• Citation: 2026 INSC 901

• Bench: Justice Sanjay Karol and Justice Nongmeikapam Kotiswar Singh

• Date of Judgment: August 20, 2026

• Area of Law: Criminal Law, Medical Law, PCPNDT Act, Investigation, Cognizance

The Judgment in One Line

Police cannot register FIR or investigate PCPNDT offences; Appropriate Authority has exclusive investigative jurisdiction; cognizance only on AA's complaint.

Why This Judgment Matters

This is a landmark judgment settling a long-standing conflict among High Courts on the role of police in investigating offences under the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act, 1994. The Supreme Court has held that despite offences being classified as "cognizable" under Section 27, the police have no power to register FIRs or investigate PCPNDT offences. The Appropriate Authority (AA) has exclusive jurisdiction to investigate complaints under the Act. The Court also clarified that while police can investigate separate IPC/BNS offences arising from the same transaction, they cannot encroach upon the AA's domain. This judgment will guide enforcement agencies and protect medical practitioners from arbitrary police action.

Background

The case arose from a decoy operation conducted by the District Magistrate (Appropriate Authority) under the PCPNDT Act, leading to a raid and subsequent proceedings. The High Court of Allahabad framed three questions: (i) whether registration of FIR is permiss

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