Chandigarh, Feb. 26 -- The Punjab and Haryana high court on Wednesday directed the director generals of police (DGPs) of Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh to file affidavits explaining the alleged delay in registration of criminal cases even after disclosure of cognisable offences. The order was passed by the bench of chief justice Sheel Nagu and justice Sanjiv Berry on a suo motu plea initiated in December over complaints from the Punjab and Haryana high court bar association members over non-registration of an FIR despite an alleged assault on a lawyer in Nayagaon, near Chandigarh. The court made it clear that the statutory mandate under Section 154, CrPC, left no room for discretion once information disclosing a cognisable offence was received. "The police, once having received information which discloses commission of cognisable offence under any penal provision, is duty bound to register the FIR and thereafter embark upon an inquiry/investigation and not prior to that," the court observed. The observation came after several lawyers alleged instances of non-registration of criminal cases by the police, despite allegations disclosing cognisable offences. The court remarked that the position of law stood settled by the Constitution Bench judgment of the Supreme Court in the case of "Lalita Kumari versus Government of Uttar Pradesh". "It is only in rare cases that the Apex Court has empowered the police to conduct a short inquiry, that too only to verify as to whether the cognisable offence as alleged was committed or not, without going into the veracity of allegations," the court observed, expressing its disapproval of practice by police to launch investigation before the registration of a criminal case....