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? Filing all FIRs online will require a lot of infrastructure put in place and manpower too. This might perhaps be a bigger task than expected.
