Theme: Police & Courts

What are the costs involved in exercising rights under this law?

For filing a petition for contempt, a certain amount of court fees have to be paid along with it. For contempt proceedings, the court fees are determined by the rules of the respective High Court or the Supreme Court. However, in the Supreme Court, the court fees do not have to be paid for the petition or any additional documents filed in the proceedings.(( Rule 4(d), Rules To Regulate Proceedings For Contempt Of Supreme Court, 1975.)) Take the help of a lawyer to understand the respective court fees charged by the High Court of the state.

Reporting Child Marriages

Anyone can file a complaint of child marriage, including the child. It doesn’t matter whether the child marriage has taken place or not as it can be filed at any time before or after the marriage. A complaint can be made to any of the following authorities:

Call 1098

1098 is a toll-free number and it operates across India. It is operated by Childline India Foundation which works for child rights and child protection. Anyone, including children themselves, can call and give information on this number. You should educate children at schools or children who are working, about this helpline number so that illegal acts of child marriage can be prevented.

Police 

You can call the Police on 100 to report:

  • About a child marriage that is taking place or 
  • A child marriage that is about to take place. 

Alternatively, you can even go to a Police Station where you can file an FIR and report the same.

Child Marriage Prohibition Officer

You can approach the local Child Marriage Prohibition Officer and report a child marriage to him. He will immediately proceed to take action against the persons responsible. 

Child Welfare Committee

You can even approach your local Child Welfare Committee established under the law for juvenile justice to look into the matter. For example, in Delhi you can contact the committees based on the districts.

File a Complaint with the Court

You can even directly file a complaint with the Judicial Magistrate (First Class) or the Metropolitan Magistrate. The Court will order the Police or the Child Marriage Prohibition Officer, as required to take action. 

 

Investigation of Cases

If a crime under this special law committed against a member of the scheduled caste or scheduled tribe groups has been reported to the police, the investigation for this must be done by a police officer who is at the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Police or above.

As per the law, the DSP must complete his investigation on top priority within thirty days. The report from this investigation must be submitted to the Superintendent of the Police, who will further submit it to the Director-General of Police of that State.(( Rule 7, Scheduled Caste Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Rules, 1995.))

Owning a Vehicle without a horn

 

Your vehicle should be mandatorily fitted with an electric horn that is capable of giving sufficient and audible warning that the vehicle is approaching1.  If you own a motor vehicle which does not have a horn, then you will be punished with a fine of at least Rs. 500 for the first offence, and Rs. 1,500 for every subsequent offence2. The applicable fine amount might vary across states. 

Given below are the fine amounts for two states:

 

 

State Frequency of Offence Fine Amount (In INR)
Delhi First Offence 500 
Any Subsequent Offence 1,500
Karnataka First offence   500
Any Subsequent Offence 1,000
  1. Section 119, Central Motor Vehicles Rules,1989 [↩]
  2. Section 177, The Motor Vehicles Act, 1988. [↩]

Notice Issued by Police

In cases where the police can arrest someone without a warrant but are of the opinion that arrest is not required, they can issue a notice to such person to appear before the police or any place specified in the notice. However, the precondition to such a notice is that there must be a complaint made against him or some reasonable suspicion should exist that he has committed such a crime. 

When such a notice has been issued to a person, he is duty-bound by law to comply with the terms of the notice. As long as the person complies, the police will not arrest him (unless they are of the opinion that he should be arrested and has recorded in writing that arrest is necessary). 

If the person given notice by the police fails to comply or refuses to identify himself, the police officer may arrest him for the offence mentioned in the notice then the police will approach the Court to get an order to arrest the person.

 

Receiving Legal Aid After Application

Once you have submitted your application for free legal aid, the following happens1:

Step 1: Your application will be scrutinized by the relevant Legal Services Authority to determine what is to be done.

 

Step 2: Once the scrutiny of the application is complete, information about whether your application has been accepted/rejected will be provided to you in the following ways:

  • If the application was made in person/ physically at any Legal Services Authority: An address (either residential address or email address) for correspondence is noted and information regarding the application is sent to the same.
  • If the application is made online via the NALSA website or the online portals of the Legal Services Authorities: An application number is generated, and you can track the status of the application on the online portal itself. 

 

The decision on the acceptance/rejection of the application is to be decided immediately and not more than 7 days from the date of the receipt of the application. 

 

Step 3: Once the application is accepted, you will be given information on the assignment of the lawyer. The assigned lawyer and you will be given a letter of appointment (vakalatnama) along, and the lawyer is required to contact you immediately, or you can initiate the contact. 

 

  1.  FAQs, National Legal Service Authority, https://nalsa.gov.in/faqs; 

    Procedure After Filing, Legal Services Management System, National Legal Service Authority, https://nalsa.gov.in/lsams/nologin/procedureAfterFiling.action. [↩]

How do you file a complaint for contempt?

The procedure to file a contempt petition depends upon the rules of the respective High Courts and the Supreme Courts. According to the rules of the Supreme Court, a contempt petition should contain:

  • The name, description and place of residence of the complainant(s) and of the persons charged (with the alleged contempt).(( Rule 4(a)ii), Rules To Regulate Proceedings For Contempt Of Supreme Court, 1975.))
  • Nature of the contempt alleged, and facts, including the date or dates of commission of the alleged contempt.(( Rule 4(a)(ii), Rules To Regulate Proceedings For Contempt Of Supreme Court, 1975.))
  • If a petition has previously been made on the same facts, the complainant has to give the details of the petition previously made and also indicate the result of the case.(( Rule 4(a)(iii), Rules To Regulate Proceedings For Contempt Of Supreme Court, 1975.))

The petition has to be supported by an affidavit and any document (s) in possession of the complainant. The document should be either the original or a true copy.(( Rules 4 (b) & (c), Rules To Regulate Proceedings For Contempt Of Supreme Court, 1975.)) To understand who to file a complaint to, read the explainer on “Who can you complain to regarding a grievance under the law?” 

Power of the Court to Stop Child Marriage

When the Court receives credible information that a child marriage has been arranged or is about to take place, it can issue an order prohibiting the persons from conducting and organizing such marriages. 

 

The accused person can apply to the Court to either revoke this order or even alter it. The Court can even do this on its own motion. 

 

Any child marriage that takes place after the order has been issued will not be a valid marriage. 

 

Circumstances of Court Intervention

The Court can intervene: 

  • On its own, or
  • On the basis of a complaint filed by a Child Marriage Prohibition Officer or any Non Governmental Organization (NGO), or
  • In some cases, such as on days of Akshaya Tritiya which is an auspicious time for marriages, the Court can also act as the Child Marriage Prohibition Officer and have all the powers of this Prohibition Officer to prevent child marriages from taking place, or 
  • Any person who has personal knowledge about a child marriage which may take place. 

Notice Issued by Court

Before passing this order the Court must issue a notice to the person accused under this law to give an opportunity to defend themselves.

 

However, in urgent cases, the Court has the power to issue an interim order (before the final order)  stopping the marriage, without giving notice to the person(s) accused.

 

Punishment 

If a temporary order has been issued against you and you do not follow it, you will be punished with jail time of up to two years and/or fine up to one lakh rupees. 

 

FIR, Arrest and Bail

When an FIR is filed for a crime or atrocity committed against a member of the scheduled castes or scheduled tribes, no preliminary inquiry needs to be conducted by the investigation officer before the said filing.

The investigation officer does not require any prior approval of his seniors for arresting any person accused of committing a crime under this law either.

Moreover, a person who fears arrest for crimes that he may or may not have committed under this law cannot file for anticipatory bail.(( Section 18A, Scheduled Caste Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.))