Chapter VI

Atrocity Prevention : Problems & Solutions

1. Present System to Prevent Atrocities

2. Problems in the Present System
3. Misuse of Atrocity Act
4. Solutions To the Problems
4.1 Improvements in Present System
A. Law Level improvements:
B. Administration Level improvements
C. Police Stations improvements
D. Court Level improvements
4.2 Use of Information Technology as a Catalyst
4.2.1 Use of IT in Police Department
4.2.2 Use of IT in Administration
4.2.3 Use of IT in Courts

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 It is seen in previous chapters that the present systems to curb the atrocities
on scheduled castes & Scheduled Tribes haven't been proved very efficient in
curbing the atrocities. Time has come now, when along with strengthening the
present systems, we should move forward towards some more powerful systems.
Along with other solutions, use of Information Technology is one such thing that
can help a lot in bringing speed, efficiency, transperancy & accountability in
Atrocity Prevention.

1. Present System to Prevent Atrocities :

After acceptance of Indian Constitution in 1950, two main laws were

brought in effect in order to implement the provisions of article number 17 & other
related articles in the Indian Constitution, which along with other things, were
aimed at preventing the unequal treatment, oppression & the atrocities committed
out of it, against the SCSTs. One of the important act is the 'Protection of Civil
Rights Act' of 1955 (PCR) & another is the 'Scheduled Castes & Scheduled Tribes
(Prevention of Atrocities) Act' of 1989 (POA). The PCR, which was initially passed
as the 'Atrocity (Offences) Act in 1955, was later in 1976, revised & re-
implemented as the PCR. The PCR has assured legal punishments for enforcing
'religious disabilities', & 'social disabilities', along with the things like refusing the
SCST persons to admit in the hospitals, refusing to sell goods or render services to
them & committing anyother offence arising out of 'Untouchability'. The offenders
of this act can get punishments of imprisonment from one to six months, along with
a fine of one to five hundred rupees. The PCR also have made provision- of
'collective fine' to the inhabitants of the area, who are concerned in the offense, or
do not assist in discovering the offenders. The rules named as the 'Protection of
Civil Rights Rules', were passed by the central government in 1977 for carrying out
the provisions of the PCR act, as per the directions given in section 16B(1) of the
PCR Act. These rules have provide 'Inquiry Officer' of a rank of ADM, for each
district. Also, as per the rules, all State Government have held responsible for
submitting a summary report to the State Government before the 15 th day of

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February, every year, regarding the implementation of the PCR. 1

In 1990, The Government of India has passed the POA Act, in addition to the
PCR Act, to curb the atrocities. At present, both PCR & POA are being
implemented all over India, except Jammu & Kashmir State, where POA is not
applicable. As per the POA Act of 1989, 'atrocity' is declared as an offense & 22
different acts are declared as the 'acts of atrocity'. Provisions are made for
constitution of 'special courts' for handling atrocity cases. Different vigilance &
monitoring committees are formed, reports are written & expected to be presented
in the parliaments annually, atrocity prone areas are expected to be identified &
many other such things are done.2

Even after doing all this, the output is not much encouraging. Around 100
cases of atrocities on SC-ST people are getting registered every day, still today all
over India. The percentage of punishment to the guilty is very less. 32,712 cases of
atrocities are commissioned against SC people & 5885 cases of atrocities are
commissioned against ST people were registered in different police stations all over
India, in year 2010.1 In year 2010, total 1,07,758 cases of atrocities committed
against SC people were pending in Indian the courts. Out of them, only in 22,180
cases, the trials were completed. 84,855 cases were pending in the courts. The
percentage of pending cases was 78.7%. 2 In the same year, total 20,249 cases of
atrocities committed against ST people were pending in the courts. Out of them,
only in 3649 cases, the trials were completed. 16396 cases were pending in the
courts. The percentage of pending cases was 81%.3

Following is the general procedure adopted in the police stations today. 4

When some atrocity or crime against any person of SC/ST category takes place, an
FIR is filed in the police station, by the victim or his family/friends etc. FIR stands
for 'First Information Report'. It is a document that the police write out & file when
they receive a complaint that a cognizable offense has been committed. Serious
crimes like murder, rape, theft etc. are treated as cognizable offenses, where as less

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serious crimes like Public nuisance, minor hurt, mischief etc. are treated as
noncognizable offenses. In case of cognizable offenses, police can arrest a person
without a warrant(order) of the court. In case of a non-cognizable offense, the
police can't make arrest without warrants. In such cases, they can not start
investigation, at their own. They have to wait for court orders before initiating
investigation in such cases.

People can file a FIR only in case of occurrence of cognizable offense. A FIR
need not be filed by the victim only. Anyone who knows of the offense can can file
it. A police officer who knows that a cognizable offense has been committed, can
also file a FIR. Any person 5 -

1. against whom the offense has been committed,

2. who knows about an offense that has been committed,

3. who has seen the offense being committed, - can file a FIR.

The police do not investigate all complaints that people put before them. The
police are not supposed to investigate the FIR if 6-
1. The case is not serious in nature

2. They feel that there isn't enough ground to investigate.

In both cases, police must have to record the reasons why they are not
initiating an investigation. If there isn't enough ground for investigation, they must
inform the person launching an FIR. The Criminal Procedure code,1973 lists all the
duties of the police & steps that have to be taken when a crime occurs & a
complaint is made. The FIR can be filed orally or in writing. Right now, at most of
the places, such FIRs are written on a sheet of paper. The six main things we have

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to mention on FIR are 7-

1. Our name & address

2. What has happened, i.e. the facts of the incident.

3. When did it happened, i.e. the date & time of the incident

4. Where did it happened, i.e. the location of the incident.

5. Who did it, i.e. the description of the person who committed the offense &

his name, if we know it.

6. Who are the witnesses- the description of the witnesses who saw what had

happened, along with their names, if known.

Giving a false complaint or giving wrong information to the police is also

treated a crime. Misleading the police with blown up facts or wrong information is
also a criminal offense & one could be prosecuted under law for doing that. The
person filing the complaint had to sign on the sheet after completing the filling of
the form. After submitting the FIR to the in-charge of the police station, the person
can get a copy of the FIR free of cost. In case of orally filing an FIR, the
complainant have a right to check whether the information described by him is
correctly recorded on the sheet or not. It can be read out to him, before his signing
on it & getting a copy of it. The illiterate persons have to put their thumb
impressions on the document. A stamped copy of the FIR is given to the
complainant. The police can later on contact the complainants for further
information, if needed. They also can contact the complainant if some progress is
made with the case. If sometimes some police officials are seemed to be biased or
corrupt & refused to register an FIR, complainants can8-

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 1. Meet & write to the Superintendent of Police or any other higher officer like

Deputy Inspector General(DIG), Inspector General(IG) etc. & bring his

complaint to their notice.

2. He can send a letter by registered post to the Superintendent of Police.

3. He can file a private complaint before the court that has jurisdiction over the

area.

4. Send a written complaint by registered post or by fax to the State Human

Rights Commission or the National Human Rights Commission.

After the grtting through the police stations, the cases are presented before
the courts. Here too, there are a lot of problems come in the way of atrcoity cases.
At the one hand, where the poor victims are not in a position to fight the legal
battle, the battles are stretched too long. There are a lot of problems faced by the
victims in the present system.

2. Problems in the Present System

In the present system, a lot of time is wasted in between various stages of

case proceedings. After the complaint is launched in the police Station, the FIR is
registered by the police officers. But some times, the police refuse to record the
FIR, especially if the complaints are against the prestigious or powerful persons. If
the FIR is recorded, the charge-sheet is to be prepared & presented before the courts
. At present this process is carried out manually & may take a lot of time. The
related papers are sent manually to the courts & it is a time-wasting thing. Actually,
there is no need that the charge-sheet be sent manually to the court, especially when
other means are available today.

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 There are two important points, on which we should concentrate ourselves,
regarding the atrocities-

I. Atrocities must not occur i. e. we must prevent the atrocities on SC/ST

people.
II. If they occurred, the guilty must get proper punishments, as early as

possible, without fail.

The first point is directly associated with prevention of the atrocities,

whereas the second point is indirectly associated with it. If the culprits get
punishments in increasing number, automatically the potential culprits will have to
control themselves.

The experience of the SCST Commission, of the present system is not too
good. Describing the response given by the States & UTs to the current system of
law, it has recorded that the measures taken by the state Governments/Union
Territory administration for effective implementation of the provisions of PCR Act
have not been quiet encouraging. Special courts to try cases registered under the act
were reportedly not setup in Assam, Gujarat, Haryana, Jammu & Kashmir, Kerala,
Maharashtra, Orissa, Punjab, Tripura, West Bengal, and Union Territory of
Chandigarh, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Delhi & Pondicherry. The proposal to setup
such courts was being considered by the state governments of Goa and Uttar
Pradesh. For taking preventive action in checking untouchability offenses,
untouchability-prone areas/districts were identified only in four states viz. Gujarat,
Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu & Uttar Pradesh. No state govt had conducted any
'periodical survey' about the working of the act during 1991, as envisaged under the
act.9

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 Looking at theoverall scenario, the problems in the present system of atrocity
Prevention, can be categorized in four broad categories-

2.1 Problems of Law making

2.2 Problems of administration

2.3 Problems at the Police Stations

2.4 problems in the Courts.

2.1. Problems of Law making

For atrocity prevention, there are two main laws in effect today. One is the
PCR act of 1955 & another is the POA Act of 1989. Two rules, the PCR Rules,
1977 & the POA Rules 1977, too are also in effect. It is a general practice that,
when a new law comes in effect, the old law is made ineffective. But while bringing
the POA Act, the PCR Act is not made ineffective. Actually, there are some acute
differences in the offences which these two acts fight against. The PCR fights
against untouchability & socio-religious disabilities along with other things. The
POA fights against the 'acts of atrocities'. We should recognize that most of the 'acts
of atrocities', come out of untouchability or socio-religious disabilities. Hence, it
could have been a better thing, in 1990, if the things like untouchability, socio-
religious disabilities & other related matters could have been covered under the
POA Act, along with the '22 acts of atrocities'. Because of existence of both the act,
some sort of confusion is created all over India. This confusion would not have
created if there would have been a single law covering all matters of atrocities.

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2.2. Problems of administration :

The administration, especially at higher level, is dominated by the powerful

castes. The apathy and bias against the scheduled castes & Tribes is found in the
administration too. The apathy & bias which generally is seen in Police & other
departments, is extended to other agencies of the Government and the District Civil
Administration too. They are expected to visit place of atrocities, assess the
position, help victims & send proper reports to the Government. But the things are
not carried out with full devotion. The administration do not conduct inquiry &
evade their duty to give relief and compensation. They make false promises about
giving compensation to the victims. They make delay in distributing cash
compensation. They do not provide different allowances & expenses like travel
allowance, daily allowance, maintenance expenses, medical expenses etc. to the
victims/witnesses, which are payable to them. The administrative officers also
ignore the social boycott of victim groups, which causes intense suffering to them.
The attitude of District Administration in such situations ranges from indifference
to negligence. The State and District level Monitoring and Vigilance Committees,
wherever constituted, do not meet at time. Even when they meet, there is rarely
found any attempt to interact with the social activists, human rights groups, NGOs
etc., which are working with and for oppressed groups. The meetings are not
announced in advance or no proper intimation is given to members of the
committees. The reports prepared by implementing agencies quarterly, monthly and
biennial, are not made available to concerned, who can comment upon the conduct
of delivery agencies. The administration is not much serious about the custodial
deaths too. The magistrates many times provide a shield for police excesses. They
either fail to conduct a thorough inquiry of the incident or hide the abuses by police
officials. Many times during inquiry of custodial deaths, the Executive Magistrates
or Revenue officials produce a report which denies police involvement. They
generally defend the police version incident.The State didn't take much interest in
identifying atrocity prone areas.10

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 The States are not regular in sending data about atrocities to the center.
Discrepences have been noticed in the data related to disposal of cases by police &
courts, during each year. At many places, overlapping of heads & sub-heads have
been occurred in the data about number of cases.11

2.3. Problems at the Police Stations :

The police department have failed in curbing the atrocities on SCSTs. More
than 30000 atrocities are still committed against the SCSTs per year all over India,
is a proof of the fact. Under-reporting of atrocities cases have become a very
common phenomenon. Atrocity cases are registered under wrong provisions, in the
police stations, with a view to conceal actual and violent nature of the incidents.At
many instances, non-registration of cases takes place. The reasons behind that are
caste bias, corruption, pressure on the police personnel to keep reported crime rate
low, negative implication of truthful reporting & possibility of adverse effect on the
career of police etc. The police deflects the objective of law by not registering
cases, by pressurizing victim & complainant to seek compromise, by foisting false
cases against victims, by refusing to register cases under POA, by applying wrong
sections of the act, by delaying investigations & filing of the charge-sheet, by
granting bail etc. Many times, the cases are investigated by the officer below the
rank of DySP. Many times police officials do not register the case under POA Act,
'abuse by caste name' is not mentioned explicitly in the complaint. At many places,
police officials come from the dominant class, they are in blood-relationship with
the offenders. Hence they try to avoid proper implementation of the act. Many
times, they are not sensitized to take atrocities & discrimination cases seriously.
Many police officers, especially those working at lower levels are not aware of the
legal provisions of the Acts. Most of the police see their primary duty as
maintenance of law and order. They see towards the act as an obstacle to caste
harmony. At many times, the registration of cases results in increased crime rate.
That can go against the officer in charge of police station and may even lead to
some punitive action.Police too come under political or other pressure. Corruption

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also plays its own role in the police department.12

Police sometimes gets involved in atrocities. Death in police custody, police

firing & torture by police, Rape & other crimes by the police have been also
revealed. This is extremely disappointing, as the police, who are expected to
safeguard the innocent & poor SCSTs & maintain law & order, are themselves
committing atrocities. Delay in registering FIRs, delay in investigation of case,
delay in arrest of accused, non-application of relavent sections of law, delay in
presentationof Challanin courts etc. are the lapses on the part of police, as observed
by the SCST Commission. In a review, Commission has revealed that out of 45
cases enquired by the commission, the relevant sections of POA Act were applied
by police in only six cases. It is also noticed in one case that the DM, SP & DIG did
not have courage to prevent the people from committing atrocity against SC
people.13 The Disposal of the cases by police is not satisfactory. They should
dispose the cases speedily & carefully.14

The problems at the Police Stations can be consolidated & summarized as

follows-

1. There is no provision, especially in the rural area, to get the cases registered

immediately.

2. The police stations are not present in the small villages, where the gravities

& possibilities of atrocities are higher.

3. Wherever the police stations are present, they are fully loaded with other

work related to the maintenance of law & order.

4. In many police stations, the police-men have blood-relationship or friendly

relations with the offenders or their families.

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 5. Many officials have some 'soft corner' for the offenders, who come from

powerful caste groups.

6. Many times the offenders have prestige & power in the local area.

7. All this results in reluctance of the police officials in registering the cases.

Many times they register a 'weak case'. This clears the path for the culprits to
get escape from any punishment.

2.4. Problems in Courts :

Most of the SCST people are poor & many of them ar uneducated. They
cannot afford to go to courts due to lack of knowledge, courage & money to employ
for cases. Courts are still unreachable to most of them. The cases run for a long
period. The poor SCST victims cannot sustain themselves upto that much period.
Special Courts are not working as 'Special Courts' in many parts of the nation. At
many places, session courts are designated as Special courts. They are already
overloaded. Hence do not give priority to atrocity cases. Thus the purpose of
'Special Courts' is defeated by the courts themselves. Lodging a complaint or a
charge-sheet against the culprits straight way before the Special Court, have not
become possible yet. In the case of Gangula Ashok and others v/s State of Andhra
Pradesh, the Supreme Court have ruled out the practice of placing the case directly
in the Special Court. The cases are taken by the Special Courts only after
recommendation of the Session Judges. This causes a lot of wastage of time &
energy. 15

The number of cases pending in the courts is alarmingly high. Fast disposal
of cases is needed. But the courts today, don't seem to be in a position to solve this
problem. Number of cases intake in courts is likely to increase highly in near future.
The courts are not prepared for disposal of them. The victims of atrocities are not

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likely to get justice in near future. In 1992 to 1995, Special courts of all States/UTs
received 88555 cases along with a backlog of 69618 cases. Out of these total
158173 cases, the courts could have disposed only 49,966 cases. The percentage of
this disposal comes to be 29.69% in these four years. That means around 7% cases
are disposed by the courts every years. With this rate, there will be created a huge
mountain of pending cases in the courts in near future.16

3. Misuse of Atrocity Act:

There is some sort of complaint regarding the misuse of atrocity Act. The
complaint is made by the non-SCST people. They feel that some SCST people use
this act as an instrument to threaten the non-SCST people. We should always
remember a fact that there can not be a single thing in the world that cannot be
misused. This can be true for all sort of acts, provisions, facilities etc. There cannot
be anything different for the Atrocity act. Use & misuse too are relative things. It is
always complained that the SCST act is being misused by some people for their
personal benefits or for retaliating group conflicts. Some political parties have
backed this complaint. In 1995, the Shivsena, a political party in Maharashtra,
made it an election issue to recommend to the Central Government to repeal the
Atrocity Act. After coming into the power, it withdrawn over 1100 cases registered
under the act, alleging that the cases were false and were registered out of personal
bias.The State Government, at that time, also declared that it would ask the Central
Government to amend the Act to limit its “abuse”. This stand of the State
Gobernment sent the message to the police that they need not register the cases and
ensured that it would not be taken seriously. According to one activist, the State
Government at that time had issued instructions to the officials not to implement
certain provisions of the Atrocities Act, especially those related to physical abuse
and land alienation. Leader of Samajwadi Party & also the Bhartiya Janata Party
have alleged the misuse of the act & called for repealing the act. West Bengal Govt
had denied any caste connection behind the atrocities. One Cabinet Minister from
Rajasthan have termed the registration of cases under the atrocities Act as a

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‘headache’ for the police and was reportedly sought to deal with it. All this provides
a strong evidence of the absence of political will to enforce the Act. 17

The misuse of Atrocity act is not done by the SCST people only. There are
many others who misuse this law. It is widely known that a number of upper caste
people have falsely obtained Certificate of belonging to Scheduled Caste through
a corrupt bureaucracy in order to corner jobs meant for SCs. Such people have a
greater chance of misusing the act. The SCST people are so poor & powerless that
they do not dare & afford to go to the police & courts for complaining against the
powerful people who victimize them. It is observed that the state is colluding with
the dominant castes in many areas all over the country. The law enforcing
machinery is seen as the the greatest abuser of human rights of Scheduled Castes.
Ill-practices like manual scavanging & Devdasi are still continued in India. Some
dominant caste people also have shown a tendency of dislodging the SC/ST elected
representatives by fabricating false complaints in collusion with the officials. SCs
are weak and vulnerable. They are continued to be the victims of violence related to
agrarian relations from the landowners. They wouldn't have been sufficiently
benefited from the land reforms acts & programs. Their assertion of rights as tenant
or even mobilizing evidence about that always had a chance of their instant eviction
as a tenant, along with physical assault and entanglement in false cases. This is the
situation which can be seen even today in most of the Indian States. Bonded Labour
System (Abolition) Act, 1976 was enabled in order to abolish the Bonded Labour
System, under which the persons are/were forced to work in the slave-like
conditions in order to pay of a debt. SCs and ST constitute overwhelming majority
of persons working as bonded labourers. But the act is not implemented properly.
As per the statistics given by the planning commission, 83.2% of the total number
of bonded labourers belonged to SCs and STs. The people involved are too weak &
vulnerable.Very few labourers muster courage to seek the help of the law. Even the
NGOs and social activists working for the emancipation of these labourers face
great risk of threat and intimidation from the land owners. Many of the activists are
also implicated in false cases. In some states, compensation is cornered by officials

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and intermediaries through misuse of their power. In such a situation there is very
little chance of misuse of the act by the SCST people. The poor & afraid victims
many times revert back from their oroginal position out of fear & other disabilities.
This should not be looked upon as a misuse of act at the initial stage. There is a
punishment provided by the act for misuse of the act. In this situation, no person
from the dominant caste could be punished for a misused /false case.18

4. What Are The Solutions?

There are two types of solution to the problem-

1. Bringing Improvements in present Systems

2. Using of Information Technology

4.1 Bringing Improvements in present Systems

A. Law Level improvements:

At present the PCR, 1955 & PCO 1989 both laws are effective. It has created
some sort of confusion. Hence, only one law should be activated, which will cover
all the issues coverd by PCR & POA, along with some new issues. The POA has
created some special officers & committees at different level. There is a graet
confusion regarding their working & submitting reports. Too many people are
involved & nobody seems to be responsible to anybody. Hence, a proper
infrastructure & hietatchy is needed to be created by the law. Many new offences
are not yet included in the list of 'acts of atrocities'. A fresh review needs to be taken
& the 'acts' be revised. The provisions of relief & rehabilitation should be revised.
The monitory reliefs should be revised & brought in line with compensations to the
victims of communal riots etc.

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B. At Administration Level :
There should be some mechanism created to monitor the working of
administration. The preventive, precautionary, punitive actions in persuance with
PCR/POA must be taken by the States promptly. Vigilance & monitoring
committees should be compelled to meet regularly, take feasible actions positively
& present reports to the government in due period. Defaulters should be punished
for ignorance/failure. The SCST people & other people having sensible mindset for
the justice of oppressed classes should be placed on the important/implementing
positions in administration. A large number of atrocities occure due to the conflicts
of water, land problems & minimum wages. The administration should concentrate
itself to solve these problems satisfactorily, as early as possible, in order to prevent
further atrocities. The development programs especially in the field of education &
economic progress & self-dependency should be designed & implemented properly.
This could further minimize the atrocities. The administration should also
concentrate on increasing the awareness of both SCST & non-SCST people &
creating fraternity among them. If equality & fraternity is arosed between the
people, the problem of atrocities could be solved to a great extent.

Wide publicity should be given to the atrocity cases & provisions of

atrocities through mass media, in order to increase the awareness. NGOs should
also be involved in it. Atrocity prone areas must be identified carefully. Special
Collectors be appointed in the atrocity prone areas. The families of victims killed in
caste atrocities should be given proper compensation in line with those killed in
communal riots etc. The Subject of 'atrocities' should be transferred immediately
from Ministry of Welfare to Ministry of Home Affairs.

C. At Police Level:

The police personnel should be trained & sensitized properly for the proper
implementation of the atrocity cases. Subject of atrocities including PCR & POA
Acts should be included in the syllabus of departmental examinations & also in

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their orientation/refresher courses. Under-reporting of atrocities cases should be
avoided. It should be seen that the cases be registered under correct provisions.
Non-registration of cases should be stopped out right. If possible, the Post masters
be given the powers of honorary police official, in order to register the cases of
atrocities, as is recommended by the SCST Commission. Also, involvement of the
Panchayati Raj could be thought upon, avoiding the threats. The caste bias &
corruption in the police department should be minimized. The percentage of the
SCST officers must be kept in proper ratio & liable officers from the SCST group
must placed on important/implementing positions in the police. Police personnel
should not be kept under pressure to keep reported crime rate low, even if the
crimes are occurring in the society. Provisions should be made that the truthful
reporting will not result in negative implication. The Sincere officers must not have
to face the adverse effect on their career. Police with wrong behaviour/record
should be kept away from the atrocity cases. Applying wrong sections of the act,
delaying investigations & filing of the charge-sheet, granting bail etc. must be
stopped in police Stations immediately. 'Abuse by caste name' should not be
required to register case under PCR/POA Act. 'Atrocity Prevention' has to be
declared as one of the primary duty of the Police. They should be sensitized to see
towards the act as an necessary evil, for maintaining caste harmony & human
dignity.
Adequate Special Police Stations should be established by the States, to
handle & prevent the atrocities. Grant of States should be stopped by the Central
Govt, for not establishing & running properly such Special Police Stations.

D: At Court Level :
The Approachability of the courts for the SCSTs should be increased. Legal
aid should be provided to them immediately after atrocity is committed against
them. Most of the times, they are not aware of the availability of the legal aid.
Awareness camps should be taken for them, in order to make the aware of the
provisions. The Special Courts designated under the PCR/POA Act, should be
established as the exclusive special courts. Provisions should be made to present the

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cases directly in front of the Special Courts. Adequate Special Courts should be
established by the States, to handle & prevent the atrocities. Grant of States should
be stopped by the Central Govt, for not establishing & running properly such
Special Courts.

In case of acquittals on technical grounds, or due to administrative or other

lapses, the cases should be reexamined by the Public Prosecutors. The competance
& motivation of the public prosecutors must be examined.

4.2. Use of Information Technology as a catalyst

Information Technology is being used in almost all spheres of life in the

present days. The use of IT for crime prevention has already been started. Various
ministries are using Information Technology for their various objectives. At present,
Various States & Central Government too are making use of Information
Technology. Egovernance has now replaced the earlier manual governance.
Information Technology can play a great role in making any procedure or legal
system more transparent, effective & fast. The Central Government, State
Governments, Supreme Court, all High Courts, all State police departments, all the
ministries etc. have their own websites today. From these websites they are making
their working mucj more fast, efficient & transparent. The Scheduled Castes &
Scheduled Tribes Commissions, which have a great role to play in welfare of
SCSTs, along with prevention of atrocities on them, too have their own websites
today.

Earlier, up till recently, the various provisions, Acts, rules etc. were not easily
approachable to the commin public. But now, full text of all the laws, Rules,
procedures etc. including the PCR Act, POA Act etc. are available 24 hours, 365
days to the public all over the world. The SC & ST Commissions, the NCRB, the
Social Justice ministry etc. have displayed such rules, their annual reports,
programs etc. for the public. National eGovernance Plan is being implemented by

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the Central & Statee Governments. Creation of useful database, creation of various
networks & State Data Centers etc. is also going on. The Police & Courts have
recognized the importance of Information Technology & they too are implementing
IT in their daily work. All this is greatly simplifying & improving the work of these
departments. The benefit of these things is bound to reach to the victims & victim
groups of the atrocities.

A. Use of IT in Police Department :

Take an example of the PCR Cell in Maharashtra. In order to deal effectively
with atrocities on Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, a Special Cell known as
'Protection of Civil Rights Cell' was set up by the Govt. of Maharashtra in 1977.
The authorized website of Maharashtra Police have allotted special page for the
'Protection of Civil Rights Cell'. The cell is working from State Police Headquarters
in the office of the Director General of Police, which is now headed by Additional
Director General of Police. The cell looks after the implementation of the P.C.R.
Act of 1955 and SC & ST (POA) Act of 1989 in the State of Maharashtra. It also
supervises the work of various PCR Cells at Range and District levels, which are
headed by the Superintendents of Police. For its effective working, the website
displays contact numbers & email ids of its officers, to whom the people can
connect or send information at any time throughout the year. These officers are now
24 hours, 365 days approachable for the general public. The website also have
provided links to the full text of concerned acts & rules like The Scheduled Castes
and The Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act,1989, The Scheduled
Castes and The Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Rules,1995 , The
Protection of Civil Rights Act,1955, The Protection of Civil Rights Rules,1977 etc.
People can read, download or print the details of the laws from this page. This is a
facility, which was available never before.19

Various problems in the present atrocity prevention system can be

solved efficiently by the IT. For example, the problem of cases not getting
registered can be solved to some extent through the use of official websites. People

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themselves will be enabled to send emails or do phone calls to the higher
authorities. The address list & phone lists may be kept on the websites. The
problem of registering cases under wrong provisions can be almost hundred percent
solved through the use of I.T. We can provide predetermined formats or already
designed forms. These forms can be designed such that the police-men in the police
station, or whoever is registering the case on-line will just have to select the proper
fields on the forms. For example, on the form, once the type of crime is selected,
the concerned provisions or articles of the law relevant to that crime only will be
displayed on the screen. The person will just have to select the concerned
provisions. Care can be taken here while designing the form. Once the type of
crime is selected, only relevant articles or provisions of the act shall be displayed in
the 'Pop Down Menu'. This will completely remove the problem of registering the
cases under wrong provisions.

Information technology can also help to reduce the time lapse between the
registration and the initiation of police action. Once the case is registered on-line on
the website of the police, it will readily become available to the higher officers for
monitoring, control & necessary action, if required. The higher authorities will
readily get the current status of case registration as well as case handling. With the
help of the database, the higher authorities at the district level will be enabled to see
or check how many cases are registered on particular day, or in the a week or in the
month etc in their district. Similarly the authorities at state level will be enabled to
see or check how many cases are registered on particular day, or in the a week or in
the month etc in the state. The authorities at central government level will be
enabled to check the position throughout the nation. Thus, if the data entry
regarding the progress of case handling is made compulsory for each police station,
the higher authorities will readily get the progress report & will be enabled to take
review of any case, whenever they feel it necessary. This can speed up the process
of case initiation & the further inquiry & actions at the police stations.

Indian Police are being empowered with the help of Information Technology,

185
from last number of years. They have started to store the crime records digitally.
The National Crime Record Bureau's on its official website have admitted that the
crime records did play a vital role in the scheme of police working for prevention
and detection of crimes. One DIG/CID conference was set up in 1970 to look into
the feasibility of computerization of crime records. This committe have
eecommended computerization of crime records. As per the recommendations of
the sub committee on computerisation of finger prints constituted in 1972, a
strategy has been adopted by the police for computerization of fingerprints. Online
filing of the FIR is also being adopted by the police shortly. A project with name
Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS), is under
implementation right now, which aims to link over 14,000 police stations across
thecountry. It is going to enable online registration of FIRs. All these provisions,
along with other things are equally helpful for the atrocity case handling & their
prevention. This CCTNS is aimed at making the Police functioning citizen friendly,
transparent, accountable, effective and efficient by automating the processes and
functions; Improving delivery of citizen-centric services through effective usage of
Information & Communication Technology (ICT); Providing the investigating
Officers with the tools, technologies and information to facilitate faster and more
accurate investigation of crime and detection of criminals; Improve the Police
functioning in various other areas such as Law & Order, Traffic Management,
curbing organized crimes, resource management etc; Facilitate collection, storage,
retrieval, analysis, transfer and sharing of data and Information among Police
Stations, Districts, State headquarters and other organizations/agencies, including
those at Government of India level; Enabling and assisting the senior Police
Officers in better management of Police Force; Keeping track of the progress of the
crime and criminal investigation and prosecution Cases, including progress of cases
in the Courts; Reduction in manual and redundant Record keeping etc. All these
developments are equally applicable for improving the performance of police in
Atrocity prevention, along with other things.20

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B. Use of IT in Administration

There is a great time lag between submission of the reports by the

Commissions and their placement before the Parliament. A lot of time is wasted in
collecting comments of concerned government agencies. This time lag, along with
other reasons, is responsible for failure of the law enforcing machinery to some
extent.21 The time lag in case of National Commission for SCs and STs is as long as
three years, as per the report. This is really not acceptable. Information technology
can help here too. If we make provision that the commission will upload its report
itself on the authorized website of the government, automatically it will be the
responsibility of the government to download or print the report, as per the
requirement & present it in the parliament. The print & electronic media, if
encouraged to get the data from this central location, they can play a great role in
creating the general awareness, with much more ease. They too will not have to
take extra efforts & waste their time in finding the facts & figures.

C. Use of IT in Courts :

According to Supreme Court of India, "Efforts are also being made to

incorporate Information Technology (IT) based solutions in order to strengthen the
judicial system. Under the E-Courts project, most judicial officers in the country
have been provided with computers & access to legal databases. Plans are also
afoot to digitize precedents as well as the permanent records of courts at all levels.
At present the daily cause-lists, orders & judgments of the supreme court & the
respective high courts are freely available online through the judgment Information
Information System(JUDIS). In the coming years, the target is to ensure that
materials pertaining to all subordinate courts as well as tribunals will also be made
freely available through this system".22

The indiacode website is already designed by the Central government, which

187
gives detail information of different laws in India in text format. This Text Base
consists of all the Central Acts of Parliament as on Date right from 1836 onwards.
Here, Search facility is available on the fields like Act Year, Act Number, Short
Title, Act Objective etc. In this way the Information technology is helping a lot in
creating awareness about the laws, procedures etc. At present, there are more than
1 lakh cases of atrocities pending in front of the courts . According to Justice Mr.
Sinha, the number of cases will possibly increase by 800% in next 20 years. In this
situation, Information Technology can hellp us to speed up the procedures with its
tremendous in built capacity. 23

The Court have started the use of Information Technology in Supreme court
through the COURTIS(Court Information System) from 1990. Supreme Courts
Rules,Information of judgments delivered, Latest case status information about
pending & disposed off cases, practice & procedures regarding Filing procedure,
provision for e-filing of cases etc. is done through this system. Under the ICT plan,
new computers & printers are provided to all judicial sections & various
administrative wings in 2009. Software modules are also provided for maintaining
the records. Information technology is now used in courts for updating the case
databases of different sections; Minimizing movements of files; Generation of
notices; Generation of Dismissal letters;Registration of cases;Disposal of cases,
Finding status of cases etc.24
***

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 References

1. The Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1955.

2. The Scheduled Castes & Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.

3. National Crime Records Bureau, Annual Report for year 2010, p. 441

4. Police & You: Know Your Rights, By 'Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative
CHRI for Ministry of Home Affairs.

5. Ibid.

6. Ibid

7. Ibid.

8. Ibid.

9. SCST Commission Report, year 1993-94, Para 7.7

10. K. B. Saxena, Report on Prevention of Atrocities Against Scheduled Castes,

NHRC, 2004 p.47, 55

11. SCST Commission Report, 1994-95, p.204

12. K. B. Saxena, Report on Prevention of Atrocities Against Scheduled Castes,

NHRC, 2004

13. SCST Commission Report, 1992-93, p. 104, 105,106

189
14. SCST Commission Report, 1994-95, p. 203

15. NCRB Report, 2010

16. SCST commission Report, 1994-95, p.210

17. Mr. K. B. Saxena, report on Prevention of Atrocities Against Scheduled Castes,

NHRC,2004, p.113.

18. Ibid., p. 50,64,85-86,111,175.

19. http://mahapolice.gov.in

20. www.ncrb.nic.in

21. Mr. K. B. Saxena, report on Prevention of Atrocities Against Scheduled Castes,

NHRC,2004, p.101

22. Annual Report of Supreme Court of India for year 2008-09

23. http://indiacode.nic.in/

24. Supreme Court of India, Annual Report for year 2008-09, p.95
***

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