Introduction
In India, a federal system of govt. is established under the jurisdiction of the Indian Constitution. According to this, India’s polity is divided into 3 levels or tiers Central Level, State level and the Panchayati Raj.
According to Article 246 of the Indian Constitution, police comes under the ‘state list’, ie. the state govt. has the authority to formulate rules and regulations for the police force in their state manuals.
The police force is entrusted with the duty of detection of crimes, protection of the citizens, maintain the balance of law & order in the state.
If there is a situation of hurting a person’s rights whether criminal or civil, the legal procedure starts with the filing of “First information report”.
What is a complaint?
According to Section 2 (D) of The Code of Criminal Procedure 1973, a complaint can be defined as “any allegation made orally or in written to the magistrate, with a view of taking action under this code against the perpetrator, whether known or unknown, has committed an offence”.
If any police officer refuses to file your complaint or register an FIR, you can send the substance of such information, in writing to the superintendent by post. If the superintendent concerned considers that the complaint discloses the commission of an offence, he either will take up the case for investigation himself or assign the case to another police officer who is subordinate to him/her. The investigation will occur in the manner provided by The Code of Criminal procedure & the officer assigned to the case will have all the powers in the station in relation with that offence. Sometimes when the superintendent assigns a case to his subordinate officer, they lodge the FIR but fail to take any specific action in accordance to the FIR. Therefore, if you discover that even after receiving the status of complaint after a reasonable time, these are the steps you can follow :-
Superintendent of Police or senior officer
Under section 154 & section 36 of Criminal procedure code, one can write an application to the superintendent of police by post, in case of any cognizable offence. He will then either investigate the case himself or assign another subordinate officer to investigate a case depending on the severity of the case.
Magistrate
If not satisfied, you can go to the corresponding magistrate or the second-class magistrate who under the provision of Section 156, clause 3 & under Section 190 clause 2 respectively of the criminal procedure code of 1973 check up on the duties & actions executed by police.
Incase, the magistrate finds out that even after lodging the FIR, police has not taken any adequate action, the magistrate can issue a direction to the police to take stringent actions & monitor it too. After the completion of the investigation, then the officer has to submit a charge sheet to the Magistrate without any unnecessary delay. A magistrate even has the power to order to re-open the case after the submission of final report of that case.
Criminal Complaint
A criminal complaint can also be filed under section 200 of the Criminal Procedure Code which by which we can examine the complainant & the witnesses upon oath. It is written and signed by the complainant, witnesses & the magistrate.
Human Rights Commission
Another option is to file a complaint in State’s Human Rights Commission or National Human Rights Commission which provides us a facility to file a complaint against the inaction of police even after filing of the FIR. NHRC also gives us a facility to register & monitor the progress of the FIR, online. The complaint can be filed by filling up the details of the injured, your details, incident’s details & details of violation of human rights.
Writ Petition
If none of the above mentioned options worked, you can also file a writ petition in the high court under Section 482 of the Criminal procedure Code, 1973.
Conclusion
If the police authorities fails to register your FIR or take any stringent step for a certain period of time, Indian Constitution has given us plenty of options and laws by which we can raise our voice against wrong or any misconduct. Hence it is proven, even if at any authority, in the eyes of Law, everyone’s equal.
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