Rajasthan HC: No Such Thing as a ‘Criminal Writ Petition’, Registry Barred from Using the Label

The Rajasthan High Court has directed its Registry to stop registering petitions as ‘Criminal Writ Petitions’, holding that no such category exists in the Constitution and that petitions touching criminal matters must be registered simply as writ petitions.

A Division Bench of the Rajasthan High Court at Jaipur, comprising Acting Chief Justice Sanjeev Prakash Sharma and Justice Maneesh Sharma, issued a blanket direction on 7 July 2026 barring its Registry from registering any case under the label ‘Criminal Writ Petition’. The direction came while the bench took up Jiya & Ors. v. The Govt. of Rajasthan & Ors., a petition that had been filed and entertained by the Registry precisely under that classification. The bench held that the designation has no basis in the Constitution and that a writ petition raising issues connected to a criminal matter remains, in law, simply a writ petition.

The Petition and How It Was Filed

The petitioners — Jiya, Bhumi, and Neha, all daughters of Shri Dayal Das Sindhi, represented through their mother Kavita — are residents of C-302, Vidhyadhar Nagar, Jaipur. They filed a petition before the Division Bench directed against the Government of Rajasthan, the Additional Chief Secretary (Home), the Director General of Police, the Police Commissioner, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (North), and the Station House Officer of P.S. Vidhyadhar Nagar North, Jaipur Metropolitan.

The Registry entertained the petition and assigned it the designation “D.B. Criminal Writ Petition No.128/2018.” The matter had subsequently been adjourned sine die, the bench observed, without any plausible reasons being recorded.

Dr. Mithlesh Kumar appeared for the petitioners. Mr. Rajesh Choudhary, Government Advocate-cum-Additional Advocate General, appeared for the respondents.

The Constitutional Position on Writ Petition Classification

When the bench took up the matter, it turned its attention first to the manner in which the petition had been classified. The court stated plainly that there is no such concept of a ‘Criminal Writ Petition’ provided in the Constitution.

The bench's reasoning was direct: a writ petition may certainly be filed to raise issues that relate to a criminal matter — challenges to detention, police inaction, or the conduct of criminal proceedings, for instance — but the subject matter of the petition does not change the nature of the proceeding itself. A writ is a writ. The constitutional jurisdiction exercised by the High Court under Article 226 does not fracture into civil and criminal variants depending on the underlying subject matter.

The bench drew a clear line between the subject matter of a petition and its procedural character. It is for the court, not the Registry, to examine the substance of a case and to place it before the appropriate roster. Allowing the Registry to classify petitions as ‘Criminal Writ Petitions’ as a matter of administrative convenience was, in the bench's view, constitutionally unsound and practically misleading.

Direction to the Registry

The bench issued a prospective direction: henceforth, the Registry is not to register any case as a ‘Criminal Writ Petition’. The direction applies generally and is not confined to the facts of the present petition.

In respect of the petition before the court, the Office was directed to treat the ‘D.B. Criminal Writ Petition’ as a ‘D.B. Civil Writ Petition’ going forward. The bench also noted that the matter had been adjourned sine die in the past without plausible reasons being recorded, and directed the Office to check and proceed further in the matter.

Outcome

For statistical purposes, D.B. Criminal Writ Petition No.128/2018 (URN: CRLW/136U/2018) was disposed of by the Division Bench on 7 July 2026. The petition itself continues, now reclassified as a D.B. Civil Writ Petition. The Registry stands directed not to register any future petition under the label ‘Criminal Writ Petition’.