Role of Police and Judiciary

Role Of Police And Judiciary:
The Police department in a country should ideally be a safe harbor for the citizens of the
country and should play a proactive and crucial role to nab and curb criminals and crime.
But in India, this view exists only on paper and not in the practical world. The police reaction
to violence against women is revoltingly minimal unbefitting, even in modern India, where
women are rising as leaders.
For example, one of the most common responses of police in respect of violence against
women is that it is victim-precipitated. They keep asking all kinds of immaterial questions
like about the dress code, why roaming in the darkness etc, as a result of that escalating the
trauma of the victim. They are unsympathetic in their manners to deal with the victims of
rape and other kinds of violence against women, notwithstanding Supreme Court's strict
guidelines on the issue.
Acid victims also feel grudging to report acid attacks because they dread the harassment
and the mockery from the police officers. Officers may orchestrate acid-violence
investigations in terms of a woman's sexual history and questions of ethics. Several acid
attack victims reported that their attackers suborned the police in order to influence the
investigation. In order to deal with the callousness of the police officers in cases of violence
against women, the Criminal Amendment Act, 2013 introduced a proviso in Section 154
deals with the recording of the First Information Report.
According to this provision, in cases of violence against women, the statement of the victim
should be recorded in front of a women police officer. But there are very few women police
officers in the Department. Women police officers should be trained to deal with the matter
sensitively. Moral training should also be emphasized. They should be taught the
importance of their job, to not only fight against crime but also to help fellow citizens.
Before the passing of the Criminal Amendment Act, 2013, the persons accused of the acid
attack were not seriously punished, partially they were booked under hurt which invited a
minimum punishment of 3 years, moreover, they were also released on bail easily. Sufficient
compensation was also not paid to the victims.
In Syed Shafique Ahmed vs. the State of Maharashtra, a personal enmity with his wife
was the reason behind a horrific acid attack by the husband on his wife as well as another
person. This caused disfiguration of the face of both the wife and that of the other person
and loss of vision of the right eye of the wife. The accused was charged under Sections 326
and 324 of the IPC and was awarded Rs. 5000 as fine and 3 years imprisonment. This case
again shows that the punishment that is often awarded does not take into account the
deliberate and gruesome nature of the attack and rests on the technicalities of injuries.
This shows the callousness and insensitive nature of the judiciary. But time has changed,
and after Laxmi Agarwal filed a PIL in the Supreme Court, the Court also laid down some
important guidelines, these are:
1. Counter sale of acid is absolutely prohibited, until and unless the vendor maintains a
record that contains the name of the purchaser.
2. No acids should be sold to a person who is below 18 years of age. A proper ID card
should be shown by the consumer at the time of acquiring the acid.
3. All the stock of acids should be confirmed by the vendor with the concerned Sub-
Divisional Magistrate within a time of 15 days. If it is not affirmed, then the goods will
be sequestered by the Sub-Divisional Magistrate and a fine of Rs. 50000 will be
obtruded on him.
4. The acid victim should be specified a compensation of at least 3 lakhs from the
concerned State/Central Government as the aftercare and rehabilitation cost. Of this
amount, a sum of Rs 1 lakh shall be paid to the victim within 15 days of the
phenomenon of such incident to lubricate instant medical concentration and the rest
2 lakhs must be given within two months as early as possible.

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