This article is written by Mr. Deepak M Habib and Miss Vaishnavi Pujari.
In this article, the investigation loopholes and rights have been explained with the help of CrPC provisions and landmark cases.
INTRODUCTION:
Investigation is the process of formal inquiry or systematic study.
The Article titled “Investigational Failure Leading to Injustice”, tries to discuss the reasons causing injustice. It begins with the Functions of Police where it headlines various rights and duties of the Police force under the Act of 1861 and highlights the part on how the police is suppose to protect the fundamental rights of the people in the society. The article then shifts the attention to the procedural aspects of the investigation process under the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure of 1973, then in the last sub-content of the article speaks about the reasons which lead to investigational failure causing injustice.
FUNCTIONS OF POLICE:
The Police Act of 1861, nearly 160 year old enactment is considered to be a Central Government Act and also is the first enactment that was legislated regarding police by the British Government after the First War of Independence which was fought by the sepoys (Indian troops), well now it is just an Act to regulate the police. The objective of the Act is to make the police more efficient in fighting and preventing criminal activities in society. Under the Act, the State Government is the governing body of the state police force and various posts like Superintendence and Inspector general of police is created. The provisions of the Act lay down certain powers and duties of police officers, where section 34 deals with the power of police officers to arrest any person who commits an offence as mentioned, also mention down certain duties of police officers under Section 23; like prevention of commission of offences, arrest and detention of offenders and to enter premises for the purpose of investigation.
The police apart from the above mentioned power and duties have the responsibility to maintain law and order, prevent crimes and protect the life, liberty, property and human rights of the people in the society. Police force is a fence formed to protect public rights and whenever an offence is committed against any person they have to thoroughly conduct an unbiased investigation to bring the offenders to justice, being the law enforcement body the police are considered to be an important mechanism of Criminal Justice System in India.
FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS:
Article 14 of the Constitution; speaks about Equality and the state shall not deny to any person equality before the law or equal protection of the laws, which means that likes should be treated alike and no individual shall be discriminated on the basis of race, caste, sex, religion and place of birth. Right to equality is an absolute right and it is not just guaranteed to the citizens, but non-citizens as well within the territory of India.
Article 21 of the Constitution; speaks about the protection of life and personal liberty and it states that no person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to a procedure established by law. This right has developed a much wider scope through case laws, including various other rights like right to live with human dignity, right to livelihood, right to health, right to pollution free environment and does not connote mere animal existence of any person.
Police, a part of the Criminal Justice system has to protect the human rights like life, liberty, property of people etc in the society. But what does one have to do when the protector itself violate rights of the people? There are various aspects that have come to attention through the judgments passed by the judiciary in this country where the police authorities/officials have failed to adhere to the fundamental rights or for instance even statutory rights granted to people. Article 14 and 21 of the Indian Constitution speak about the “Right to Equality” and “Right to Life” considered as the most important rights for human existence with dignity. The police have a significant role in protecting them and if they fail to do their duties correctly then such rights get violated.
Fair Investigation without bias leads to the protection of rights of people and one cannot reach a solution and provide justice to the victim if this is not adhered to, and police being the body conducting investigations whenever any offence has occurred in the society has to conduct an unbiased investigation in every such case which appears before them and by unbiased it means it should be free from any influence or discrimination inflicted on the victim as well as the accused because if this happens it leads to violation of Right to Equality.
Another aspect of police responsibilities include enforcement of law, they are expected of enforcing various provisions mainly procedural ones for the maintenance of law, order and public peace where some of them even include the ones which help in protecting life, liberty and property and if the police authorities/officials fail in enforcing them then it may lead to violation of Right to life.
INVESTIGATION PROVISIONS UNDER THE CODE:
Investigation is the first and foremost stage after a crime is committed, the purpose of it is to identify the offender and bring them to trial and this responsibility of conducting an investigation is primarily vested with the police. The concept of Investigation is dealt with under the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) where Section 2(h) of the code defines the term ‘Investigation’ as it includes all the proceedings for the collection of evidence, conducted by a police officer or by any person who is authorized by the magistrate.
Investigation can be conducted only when there is a complaint registered by a person with the police indicating an offence of cognizable nature being committed, such complaint given by the informant contains all the primary information regarding the offence and this is called a First Information Report (FIR).
Once the report is registered with the police, they can start with the investigation process, a police officer in charge of a police station has the power to investigate a matter in his territorial jurisdiction where for cognizable offences he/she needs no warrant from the magistrate and for non-cognizable offence need a warrant.
The police under the provisions of CrPC need to follow proper procedures of investigation and for collection of evidence relating to the offence, once the police officer of a specific police station has registered the FIR then under the suspicion of commission of offence can initiate with the investigation. The police officer if does not have any sufficient reason to conduct an investigation then can refuse to do it. The police officer then should send a report without any delay to the magistrate called the ‘Police Report’ to make the magistrate aware and enable to control the investigations being conducted. The police under the code also exercise powers such as ensuring Attendance and Examination of Witnesses where the investigating officers should follow all the conditions as mentioned under the provisions.
Similarly, they also exercise the powers of summoning and searching which empowers the investigation process and after completion, if the evidence is not sufficient to prove any commission of offence then the accused is released and if there is sufficient reason and cause then the accused is presented before the trial with the charge sheet.
This particular sub-content speaks about the Investigational process and procedure laid down under the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure in India, but the question which arises before us here is even after having such elaborate and specific provisions regulating or supplementing the investigational activities are the offenders really being punished? Are the victim rights protected? Or are the police successful in controlling the crime against society?
INVESTIGATIONAL FAILURE LEADING TO INJUSTICE:
In India, criminal activities over a period of time have increased at a shocking rate and these crimes can be controlled only if there is efficient enforcement and compliance of law, also it is not easy to understand why crimes are committed in society because there are various reasons which influence a person to commit one. The concept of investigation is relevant in the criminal law sphere and police force primarily has the responsibility of curbing criminal activities, crimes not only violate individual interests but also sometimes when the nature of the crime is considered to be heinous tends to violate the societal interest as well. At the very beginning, if there is any inefficiency in conducting investigation and identification of the person committing the offence then the concept of justice will be compromised and defeated. There are various reasons for investigational failure leading to injustice in India;
PROCEDURAL LAPSES:
Evidence plays a key role in Investigation process and it should be recognized, collected, documented, protected, validated, analyzed and disclosed in such a manner that it is accepted by the Court in delivering justice to the victims of crime. Lapse or failure in adhering to proper procedure by the investigating authority or officials can itself cause and lead to injustice, the Police and Judiciary collectively have the responsibility of imposing punishment on the offenders. The Code of Criminal Procedure contains few provisions for irregularities committed by the courts in delivering justice but does not have any mention regarding the irregularities committed by the I.O (Investigating Officers) while conducting Investigations. In criminal matters, the courts mainly and largely rely on the evidence that is collected during the process of investigation along with that it also focuses on the statements given by the witnesses against the accused persons, which is why the standard of investigation should be maintained.
In C. Muniappan and others v. State of Tamil Nadu; The Supreme Court held that defect in the investigation by itself cannot be a ground for acquittal. Investigation is not the solitary area for judicial scrutiny in a criminal trial and where there has been negligence on the part of the investigating agency which results in defective investigation, there is a legal obligation on part of the court to examine the prosecution evidence dehors such lapses carefully to find out whether the said evidence is reliable or not and to what extent it is reliable and as to whether such lapses affected the objects of finding out the truth.
In State of Karnataka v. Yarappa Reddy; The Supreme Court in the following case held that, it is well nigh settled that even if the investigation is illegal or even suspicious the rest of the evidence must be scrutinized independently of the impact of it, otherwise the criminal trial will plummet to the level of the investigating officers ruling the roost. Criminal justice should not be made a casualty for the wrongs committed by the investigating officers in the case.
In Hussainara Khatoon v. State of Bihar; It was held that section 167(5) of CrPC is to be complied with. The provision prescribes that a case that is triable by a magistrate as a summons case, and the investigation is not completed within 6 months from the date of arrest of the accused, the magistrate will have to make an order stopping a further investigation into the offence. However, if the investigating officer satisfies the magistrate that the continuation of investigation beyond 6 months is necessary for the interest of justice, then it shall be continued.
Lack of Training and Education:
Investigation is an activity which requires application of mind by the officials/authorities, such process is not just about collection and disclosure of evidence before the court but also includes conducting of forensic tests which demands for proper and systematic training of the personnel. Failure in providing proper training will directly have a negative impact on investigation process which leads in creating a lapse in the procedure. The training process helps the personnel getting habituated to the processes that are to be followed while conducting investigations in real world, similarly lack in education also affects the efficiency of the process, education aids in getting used to taking stressful decisions on duty, protecting the public from offenders, learning diverse areas of law enforcement, knowledge and information of the latest amendments to various laws and adapting to changing environments, so proper training and education assists in conducting proper investigations leading to provide justice to the victims of crime.
Corruption:
In most of the cases lapses deny justice to those who belong to the poorer sections of the society and one of the reasons is corruption, it completely discards the concept of delivering justice to the victims of crime and also violates Articles 14, 21 of the Indian Constitution which speaks about Equality and protection of life and liberty of an individual respectively. Equality means each and every person is same in the eyes of law and no person shall be discriminated on the basis of race, caste, sex, religion, place of birth, in the sense if any person commits an offence in the society then similar punishment as on others should be imposed on the person according to law without any bias. And The right guaranteed under Article 21 speaks about Right to life with personal liberty and such right is developed and provided with much wider scope which includes various essential rights along with Right to Fair Trial which help in protecting the rights of an accused before the trial and so whereas the police is considered to be the protector of life, liberty and property of general public if corruption takes place both the important and essential rights of the people will get violated. The poor keep on suffering because of corruption and the rich keep on surviving even after committing offences because of influence that they have on the police officials/authorities, so corruption makes poor poorer and rich mightier day by day and also with that just defeat the idea and concept of justice in the society.
CONCLUSION:
The article focuses on the significance of the Investigation process in the Criminal Justice system in India, also manages to look into the cause or the reasons why such a process gets affected. One of the main reasons for that being corruption, but apart from all these reasons there is one particular reason which let such lapses to happen is lack of education among people, the public especially those who belong to the poor and uneducated section of the society are not aware of their rights which might lead to exploitation by the police. The Courts have taken the responsibility of delivering justice even if there are some failures in investigational procedures, similarly, the police should also have the same responsibility as of courts and should be made more accountable for their negligence’s and mistakes caused during Investigations. This way all the mechanisms of the Criminal Justice System in India can work towards providing Justice to its victims in the society.
0 Comments