What Is Protest Petition in Criminal Law?

Last Updated on December 7, 2019 by Legalseva.net

In our legal ecosystem, the doors of justice are opened through the awareness of the citizens about their rights. Like any other property rights, right to get justice is an intangible right of a person in regards to fulfilment of the dream of our constitution makers, who wished to formulate the implied duty of law, as to help a person achieve their full potential. When a wrong happens to an individual then the only ray of hope they have is that police will hear the aggrieved, and help facilitate in the mental and monetary recovery of the same individual by taking the wrong doer to the court of law.

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What if the police officer, who is in-charge of taking the cognizance of the complaint on behalf of the court, to take forward the complaint to a magistrate was bribed or his personal opinion about the aggrieved person and the wrong doer, clouds the judgement of the police officer. What remedy a person has in such case, where the police officer’s report is not satisfactory for the has not been codified yet in criminal law of India.

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When a person is not satisfied by the report filed by the police, the same person may move against such police report in court of law, and the negative police report shall be considered asbasis for the complaint petition , flaws in the police investigation may be utilised as the justification for the admission of the complaint petition. The complaint petition may be run in 3 ways described as following :

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  • where the petition is rejected and the police report is accepted
  • where the police report is not rejected but the complaint petition is allowed to run simultaneously to the case involving the police report
  • where the police report is rejected and the complaint is taken as the basis for an investigation directed by the court to be carried out by the police, or any other individual or institution who shall have all the powers conferred on the police except the power to arrest without a warrant.

The sections which have been referred to draw the above conclusions are section 156(3) Cr.P.C., section 190(1)(b) Cr.P.C., section 200 Cr.P.C. and section 202 Cr.P.C.

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These provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code give the judiciary an opportunity to the check the executive branch of the government and hold the executive accountable for the errors that it may make while dealing with ailments or issues of the huge population of India. The Magistrates have been given the individual responsibility to represent the fairness and understanding of the judiciary of the concerns of a billion and more people.

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The article 14 of our Indian Constitution ensures every citizen that equality is there before law. This “Equality before law” is one of the key essential of ‘Rule of Law’ and is elaborated by Professor A.V. Dicey in explaining rule of law and hence Indian Constitution silently invites rule of law into its constitutional machinery. When an employee of executive wing of our constitutional machinery fails to follow his judgment to required depth and wrongly takes the cognizance of an offence, it can be considered failure of the machinery set on the principles of our nation’s constitution makers. The well educated political leaders of their time, had the most difficult task in-hand, which was to make a country running. With sovereign being the ‘People of India’ the sole purpose of Indian Government is to maintain law and order. Hence, it’s the rule of law which is guiding Indian Government in fulfilling te duties prescribed by the founding fathers of India, with prima facie to help an individual attain themselves truest potential, and these are prescribed in the Chapter III and IV of the Indian Constitution.

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Constitution in its Chapter III read along with Chapter IV, empowers every citizen to seek for remedies for breach of their right to get constitutional remedies, for omission of an act which would have lead to proving the FIR was actually justifiable and cognizable in nature but was marked close for some valid reason in the discretion of the police officer in-charge. A protest petition is the silent name for this particular kind of petition against the negative complaint of the police.

Since petition is a formal request for a cause by individual or individuals, it empowers the magistrate to consider a particular case’s negative police complaint and take cognizance of the complaint, just like a police officer is empowered to enter a premises without a warrant, a magistrate is also allowed in special circumstances in the interest of the society to start the court proceedings for the same.

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You can seek free legal advice from best/top/expert criminal lawyer related to protest petition in Chandigarh Panchkula Mohali in case your situation warrants so.

This post is written by Vinayak Bhatia. For more info, please call 99888-17966.

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