WHILE ACKNOWLEDGING the constitutional gravity of custodial death allegations and noting the “irony” that the violation of a Supreme Court mandate to register an FIR in cognizable offences affords no direct recourse to a writ court, the Gujarat High Court has dismissed a petition seeking registration of an FIR in the alleged custodial death of 70-year-old Zahiruddin Shaikh, who had been arrested by Ahmedabad police in connection with an allegations of cow slaughter. Justice D N Ray, while pronouncing the judgment in the petition filed by Shaikh’s son Tofik, held that the petitioner was bound to first exhaust statutory remedies under the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (BNSS), before invoking the extraordinary writ jurisdiction in the High Court.…