On September 7, the Supreme Court ordered all states and union territories to upload all first information reports on to their websites, within 24 hours of them being registered at police stations. In Goa, the police force has taken cognisance of this order and are only awaiting a formal order before putting it into motion. The formal order will only be sent to the Director General of Police after the State government receives a communication from the Union Ministry of Home Affairs. The move will surely have a positive outcome. For one, there will be absolute transparency from the Goa Police. They will also be accountable to ensure that first information reports (FIRs) be filed according to proper procedures and those who
have filed the report will be able to view it. Of course, one of
the main reasons for doing this was to ensure that the ‘accused’
has all the information since the liberty of a person
is at stake. While some may look at this as informing the accused
of the case against him or
her beforehand, the court does
have the responsibility of ensuring
a proper trial or investigation. Of
course, no accused can claim any
benefits from the fact that the FIR
against them was not uploaded in
time; the court has made sure that there was a caveat to this
effect included. No anticipatory bail can be applied for using
this as an excuse.
Not all FIRs need to be uploaded though. There are exemptions
to this rule. The Courts have directed the state police not
to upload FIRs pertaining to insurgency cases, sexual cases
and those filed under the Protection of Children from Sexual
Offences (POSCO) Act. This has been done to ensure privacy,
in sexual and POSCO cases, as well as national interest in
cases of insurgency and terrorism. The decision though, will
have to be taken by an officer below the rank of Deputy Superintendent
of Police, or any person holding an equivalent post.
An FIR is not really a public document. According to the law,
the complainant gets a copy of the FIR and it has only to be
shared with the accused after the case is charge-sheeted. In
fact, putting it into public domain violates a host of privacy
laws and is also a violation of procedural routine. Perhaps
this is part of a larger change, but there still needs to be some
introspection done on the due course of the law.
Is the Goa Police prepared for this, however? Uploading all
FIRs online will require a lot of infrastructure put in place
and manpower too. This might perhaps be a bigger task than
expected.
