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Final reports' under Sec-498A and the SC/ST atrocities act

Article · October 2014

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 COMMENTARY

‘Final Reports’ under Sec-498A Atrocities) Act, 1989 (henceforth the

SC/ST Act) and 498A of the Indian Penal

and the SC/ST Atrocities Act Code (IPC) do not go to court. They
result in the FR and are closed.
When a FIR is lodged, the police inves-
tigate and send it to the court (charge
Sthabir Khora sheet) or close it because of mistakes
of fact or law under Section 173 of the

P
The failure by the police to file opular perception understandably IPC. Theoretically, the superintendent of
a First Information Report is associates justice with the courts. police (SP) sees the FR before it is submit-
The much quoted Bollywood dia- ted to the court, the court is supposed to
the subject of much debate but
logue tarikh pe tarikh (date upon date) inform the complainant, and the com-
the Final Report by which a depicts the endless delay of justice in the plainant has the option of a protest
case is closed has received scant courts, but nevertheless portrays the petition if s/he is not satisfied with the
attention. This article reflects on court as the dispenser of justice. How- investigation. However both the SP and
ever, in reality, justice at the first instance the court, with their heavy workload,
the findings following a study
is much more beholden to what the may not have so much time to take the
of 100 Final Reports each under police say. Therefore, justifiably, there is preventive action of scrutinising the FRs
Section 498A of the Indian Penal a concern about the refusal or delay in in detail from the point of view of law
Code and the Scheduled filing the First Information Report (FIR). and fact before sanctioning it. That
The televison serial FIR is symbolic of leaves a protest petition by the com-
Castes/Scheduled Tribes
people’s awareness of this first step in plainant as the only redress against a
(Prevention of Atrocities) Act, the justice system which sets the process wrongful FR. But if the complainant is
1989. The police’s differential in motion. Two important indicators poor, illiterate and powerless before the
stance on these two laws has discussed in the academic as well as social and politically powerful upper
the popular discourse on justice are castes, how can s/he file a protest peti-
major implications in terms of
“incidence of crime” and “conviction rate”. tion? Though s/he is supposed to know
justice delivery. However, both these discourses do not about the fate of his/her case, the infor-
focus much on the Final Report (FR) mation can always be stopped midway.
which is truly the first-line of justice/ Just like the dividend cheque of small
injustice delivery. It is almost a verdict shareholders which never seems to reach
by the police that the case does not them or reaches very late, the notice may
deserve to go to the court. If oppression reach very late or be seized en route.
has indeed taken place, such a verdict by It is the first-line/front line of justice/
the police has serious implications for injustice. The complainant has two other
the delivery of justice. Not much public options apart from the police station to
consternation is witnessed when a size- lodge a FIR – the SP office and the court.
Sthabir Khora ([email protected]) is Associate able chunk of cases, sometimes amount- But the FR is solely based on police investi-
Professor, School of Education, Tata Institute of ing to 50% in the case of the Scheduled gation. Though the judiciary is not bound
Social Sciences, Mumbai.
Castes/Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of to accept the FR, it cannot appropriate
Economic & Political Weekly EPW October 11, 2014 vol xlIX no 41 17
COMMENTARY

the investigative function of the police. quite high in the states of Andhra Pradesh, laws in a state which has one of the
Bihar, Rajasthan and UP, where maximum
Therefore, the FR which is based on highest rates of FRs.
cases are registered under PCR and PoA Act,
p­olice investigation is very important. needs to be studied in depth.
Sociologically, women and the members Type of Final Report
of the scheduled castes (SC)/scheduled There were seven states in 2012 where The particular category under which a
tribes (ST) are considered to be part of more than 40% cases under the SC/ST FR is labelled reflects the differential
the oppressed. Section 498A was insert- Act resulted in either “false”1 or some stance of the police towards 498A and
ed into the IPC in 1983 to provide a legal other category of the FR.2 There were the SC/ST Act. While almost all the
measure against domestic violence (The four states in 2012 where between 40% FRs under 498A are galat fahmi (wrong
Centre for Women Studies unda­ted). and 67% cases and eight states where ­impression; legally “mistake of fact”),
The SC/ST Act, was enacted specifically between 20% and 40% cases under the overwhelming category of FRs under
as a legal redress mechanism to prevent the Section 498A of the IPC resulted in the SC/ST Act is “false”. While “mistake
atrocities motivated by caste (Saxena either “false” or some other category of of fact” does not invite any legal reper­
2002). Periodically there is an uproar the FR out of the total cases investigated cussions, “false” invites Sections 182 and
about the ­injustice due to the refusal (http://ncrb.nic.in/, viewed on 9 April 211 of the IPC. However, these sections
or delay in filing a FIR and the very 2014). are recommended in very few FR s. This
low rate of conviction in court under Generally, the FR is also identified could be due to the police not wanting
these laws. However, there is not as with “false” cases though it is one of the to take on additional burden. There is a
much focus in the popular and academic categories among others like “mistake thin chance of success as the ex-­
discourse on the large number of cases of fact”, “civil nature”, etc. Occasionally, complainant becomes the accused and
getting closed (FR) and not going even the court expresses concern about avails of the “benefit of doubt”. Falsity
to court. This is what the ­National Com- the misuse of Section 498A and the has to be proved beyond reasonable
mission for Scheduled Castes (2004-05: SC/ST Act though one can argue that doubt. Nevertheless, using the label
239) said: everything which has a “use” can also be “false” and still not invoking Sections
the central government and the state gov-
misused. In this context, it becomes nec- 182 and 211 of the IPC reflects the hostile
ernment should ensure that the underlying essary to look at the FRs. attitude of the police towards the
reasons for ending up the investigations in I have put down my reflections after ­v ictims under the SC/ST Act. What
Final Report as acquittal of the accused is studying 100 FR each under these two could be the reason that the police

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18 October 11, 2014  vol xlIX no 41  EPW   Economic & Political Weekly
 COMMENTARY

predominantly label the FRs under the either relatives of the complainant or on the upper castes socially, politically
SC/ST Act as false while they could as from the same community and are and economically. Many a times this
well have labelled them mistake of fact thereby “interested” parties. Though could be the reason that the victims en-
like the FRs under Section 498A? The the law does not say that being a com- ter into rajinama.
reason could very well be caste. While munity member is tantamount to being
498A is not caste specific, the SC/ST Act an “interested” witness, the police con- False Cases: Occasionally, even the
is especially meant for the lowest struction of this theory depicts their judiciary has expressed apprehensions
of castes. unfriendly attitude and a mechanical and warned about the misuse of Section
investigative approach. They do not 498A and the SC/ST Act. The general dis-
Delay in Reporting and Veracity of the follow the “case to case” approach of course among the upper castes and men
Case: Courts count the delay in report- the court which assumes that each case is that these laws are largely misused.
ing in hours and take a serious view if it is unique. However the reality is a little different.
is in days. While a delay of a few days in The words “health (whether mental or
reporting is construed as lack of veracity Reconciliation: Both the laws are non- physical)” in Section 498A clearly imply
with respect to the SC/ST Act, the same compoundable – the complainant can- that mental/psychological violence is
is not the situation in regard to com- not play a role in closing the cases. The well within the ambit of the law. Many
plaints under Section 498A IPC even justification in almost all the FR s under acts can be construed as violent in the
when reported after months or in some Section 498A rests on the complainant’s domestic sphere. For example, taunts
cases, years. Rarely will women ap- purported desire for rajinama (recon- (taane marna). Therefore when a woman
proach the police just days after mar- ciliation) presumably to save her family files a case under Section 498A months
riage. If the woman reports harassment life, keeping the children in mind or be- after the marriage has taken place, it is
after months or years, it is understood cause of her economic condition. The nearly impossible to say that no psycho-
that she has done so in an attempt to police almost seem to play a persuasive logical violence could have happened as
save her marriage and hoping that role in such situations. They are sup- the definition of psychological violence
things would improve. But this is not the posed to first try the reconciliation rests with her and the scope of psycho-
view taken by investigating officers (legally, counselling) route before pro- logical violence is vast. The Supreme
when preparing the FRs under the SC/ST ceeding further in the 498A cases. The Court has observed that
Act. It is not assumed that the victims police legally categorise a FR under …mental cruelty varies from person to per-
might not have reported promptly fear- Section 498A containing rajinama as a son depending on the intensity or sensitiv-
ing damage to their social lives and not “mistake of fact”. Interestingly, about ity and the degree of courage or endurance
wanting to antagonise the powerful up- half such FR s under the SC/ST Act are to withstand such mental cruelty (Kothari
2005: 4,845).
per castes. categorised as “false” though they can
very well be categorised as “mistake of However, sometimes the ulterior mo-
Public-Private Dichotomy and the fact” and save the complainant from tive overrides any supposed psychologi-
Different Evidence Standard: While possible legal sanction. The police even cal violence. A few FRs point out that it is
Section 498A deals with the oppression apply Sections 182 and 211 of the IPC for a property issue or material interest that
in the “private sphere”, the SC/ST Act is “lodging false cases” in some instances. can give rise to the misuse of Section
oriented towards the public sphere. The This is an excerpt (translated from the 498A. However, often, the wife acts only
insult should have taken place “within Hindi) from an FR. as a proxy for her husband who wants to
public view”. What constitutes the pub- (6) the matter is that complainant Modaram gain materially from his father or brother.
lic? Is it only spatial? That the “person- and his father Dayaram presented a jointly For example, according to one FR, the
al is political” is accepted with respect written rajinama wherein it was written that complainant, her father and her hus-
to Section 498A but not with that to the rajinama has been effected between both band jointly defrauded the complain-
parties and do not want any further legal
SC/ST Act. It does not address the cu- ant’s father-in-law of his land. The latter
action. In this way this case was registered
mulative humiliation and mental agony falsely by depicting imaginary facts by com- lodged a complaint in the Tuni police
that the SC/ST victim suffers day after plainant Modaram taking help of lawyers to station (name changed). The woman’s
day. This public-private dichotomy cre- harass Mahesh Kumar and his family. This complaint was in retaliation.
ates a special problem for them. The case is found totally false. While property issues can result in the
police apply a contradictory evidential The issue of rajinama brings out the misuse of Section 498A, many a times
standard. While relatives are under- relation between the society and law. the use of members of the SC/ST as proxy
standably considered as valid witnesses While the victim can take 498A to its by the upper caste to settle score
in the 498A cases, even community logical conclusion by being prepared to amongst themselves can result in the
members are considered as “interested” walk out of the marriage, this is difficult misuse of the SC/ST Act. The SC/ST mem-
or biased witnesses under the SC/ST Act in the SC/ST Act case as the victim has to bers are often dependent on the upper
complaints. Sometimes the FR rests on continue living in the village or commu- castes for their livelihood and they pre-
the premise that all the witnesses were nity. Members of the SC/ST are dependent fer to fall in line. Nearly 10% of the FRs
Economic & Political Weekly EPW October 11, 2014 vol xlIX no 41 19
COMMENTARY

studied mention that upper-caste persons against the upper-caste abettor in of fact”, “mistake of law”, “non-cognisable”,
“civil nature”.
had cajoled and coerced a dependent spite of concluding that he was the insti- 2 The percentage is derived from the ratio of to-
SC/ST member to file a complaint against gator (legally abetted). This too shows tal “Final Report submitted” plus “declared
false” out of total of “charge sheeted”, “de-
another upper-caste member in order to the caste bias among the investigation clared false” and “final report submitted”. The
settle scores. The following is a translat- officers. percentage is not derived from the total of cur-
rent registered and previous year pending as
ed excerpt from an FR. many also remain pending at the end of the
Conclusions year. So the total of charge sheeted, declared
The investigations found that complain- false, and final report submitted represents the
ant Gajaram did not accompany Mahendra The prevailing discourse is that women total number of cases investigated in a year.
Singh in the tractor on the day of the inci- and members of the SC/ST misuse Sec-
dent. Lawyer Mahendra Singh got Gajaram tion 498A and the SC/ST Act, respective- References
to file a false case under the SC/ST Act to ly. This discourse refuses to look at the Kothari, Jayna (2005): “Criminal Law on Domestic
take revenge for the altercation with Kalu- Violence – Promises and Limits”, Economic &
possibility that men and members of the
ram Dewasi on account of his autorickshaw Political Weekly, 40(46): 4843-49.
creating obstacle for his (Mahendra Singh’s) upper castes can misuse these laws by National Commission for Scheduled Castes (2004-
tractor. Kaluram reiterated the same when using women and SC/ST members as 05): “First Annual Report”, viewed on 2 April
questioned. The matter is found to be totally proxies. There is an urgent need to cor- 2014 (http://www.ncsc.nic.in/pages/view/219
false and without any basis after complete /218-first-annual-report).
rect this misconception. Saxena, K B (2002): “Report on Prevention of
investigation.
Atrocities against Scheduled Castes” (Delhi:
Notes National Human Rights Commission).
Interestingly, no FR s among the ones
1 False is a subcategory of final report, for exam- The Centre for Women Studies (undated): “Report
studied recommended that Sections 182 ple “Type of Final Report Unoccurred” in the on Use and Misuse of Section 498A-IPC”
and 211 of the IPC should be applied studied state are following- “false”, “mistake (Jaipur: Rajasthan University).

20 October 11, 2014 vol xlIX no 41 EPW Economic & Political Weekly

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