Research Directorate, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada

1. FIRs in Punjab

For information on FIRs in India, including information on cognizable versus non-cognizable offences, see Response to Information Request IND200628 of June 2021.

According to the Punjab Police, when a cognizable offence is reported, either by written or verbal statement, the complaint is recorded in writing by a police officer and signed by the complainant, and then the FIR is registered (Punjab n.d.a). The Punjab Police further note that complainants receive one copy of the FIR "immediately" at no cost from the police station that registered the FIR (Punjab n.d.a). The same source adds that complainants can also obtain a copy virtually on the websites of the Punjab Police or Punjab district police, through the mobile application "'PPSAANJH'" or in person at a Saanjh Kendra [community police centre (IDC n.d.)] (Punjab n.d.b). In correspondence with the Research Directorate, a managing partner of a Punjab-based law firm, whose practice areas include criminal law, stated that FIRs are sent to the Magistrate within 24 hours and can also be accessed at the court of the Magistrate (Managing Partner 14 Dec. 2021). The Punjab Police state that FIRs can be obtained by providing the names of the district and police station as well as the FIR number and year (Punjab n.d.b).

The Punjab Police note that 24 hours after the registration of a FIR, a copy is available for download on the police websites (Punjab n.d.b.). According to an article in the Indian Express, an English-language daily newspaper in India, the Supreme Court ruled that as of November 2016, all states and union territories must upload registered FIRs to police department websites within 24 hours except for "sensitive cases" such as "insurgency and sexual offences against women and children" (The Indian Express 8 Sept. 2016). Similarly, the Managing Partner stated that FIRs are uploaded on the website of the police station where they were registered, except for FIRs relating to crimes against women (Managing Partner 14 Dec. 2021). For information on FIRs that are not required to be uploaded on police websites, see Response to Information Request IND200628 of June 2021.

The Punjab Police state that as of May 2020, "[a]pprox[imately]" 900,000 FIRs were available on the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS); these can be downloaded for free, while a certified copy costs 5 rupees (INR) [C$0.08] (Punjab n.d.c). For information on the CCTNS, see Response to Information Request IND201036 of June 2022.

The Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) provides the following:

207. Supply to the accused of [sic] copy of police report and other documents.—In any case where the proceeding has been instituted on a police report, the Magistrate shall without delay furnish to the accused, free of cost, a copy of each of the following:—

1. the police report;
2. the first information report recorded under section 154;
3. the statements recorded under sub-section (3) of section 161 of all persons whom the prosecution proposes to examine as its witnesses, excluding therefrom any part in regard to which a request for such exclusion has been made by the police officer under sub-section (6) of section 173;
4. the confessions and statements, if any, recorded under section 164;
5. any other document or relevant extract thereof forwarded to the Magistrate with the police report under sub-section (5) of section 173:
   Provided that the Magistrate may, after perusing any such part of a statement as is referred to in clause (iii) and considering the reasons given by the police officer for the request, direct that a copy of that part of the statement or of such portion thereof as the Magistrate thinks proper, shall be furnished to the accused:
   Provided further that if the Magistrate is satisfied that any document referred to in clause (v) is voluminous, he shall, instead of furnishing the accused with a copy thereof, direct that he will only be allowed to inspect it either personally or through pleader in Court. (India 1973, bold and italics in original).

In correspondence with the Research Directorate, a trustee of the Lawyers Collective, an organization in India that engages in human rights advocacy and provides legal aid for marginalized groups (Lawyers Collective n.d.), stated that "there is no particular procedure in the law to provide a copy of the FIR to the accused directly after registration of the same" (Trustee 31 Dec. 2021). A 2016 ruling by the Supreme Court of India on Youth Bar Association of India v. Union of India states the following:

1. An accused is entitled to get a copy of the First Information Report at an earlier stage than as prescribed under Section 207 of the Cr.P.C.
2. An accused who has reasons to suspect that he has been roped in a criminal case and his name may be finding place in a First Information Report can submit an application through his representative/agent/parokar for grant of a certified copy before the concerned police officer or to the Superintendent of Police on payment of such fee which is payable for obtaining such a copy from the Court. On such application being made, the copy shall be supplied within twenty-four hours. (India 7 Sept. 2016)

2. Summons

The CrPC provides the following:

62. Summons how served.—

1. Every summons shall be served by a police officer, or subject to such rules as the State Government may make in this behalf, by an officer of the Court issuing it or other public servant.
2. The summons shall, if practicable, be served personally on the person summoned, by delivering or tendering to him one of the duplicates of the summons.
3. Every person on whom a summons is so served shall, if so required by the serving officer, sign a receipt therefor on the back of the other duplicate.

63. Service of summons on corporate bodies and societies.—Service of a summons on a corporation may be effected by serving it on the secretary, local manager or other principal officer of the corporation, or by letter sent by registered post, addressed to the chief officer of the corporation in India, in which case the service shall be deemed to have been effected when the letter would arrive in ordinary course of post.

Explanation.—In this section, "corporation" means an incorporated company or other body corporate and includes a society registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 (21 of 1860).

64. Service when persons summoned cannot be found.—Where the person summoned cannot, by the exercise of due diligence, be found, the summons may be served by leaving one of the duplicates for him with some adult male member of his family residing with him, and the person with whom the summons is so left shall, if so required by the serving officer, sign a receipt therefor on the back of the other duplicate.

Explanation.—A servant is not a member of the family within the meaning of this section.

65. Procedure when service cannot be effected as before provided.—If service cannot by the exercise of due diligence be effected as provided in section 62, section 63 or section 64, the serving officer shall affix one of the duplicates of the summons to some conspicuous part of the house or homestead in which the person summoned ordinarily resides; and thereupon the Court, after making such inquiries as it thinks fit, may either declare that the summons has been duly served or order fresh service in such manner as it considers proper.

…

67. Service of summons outside local limits.—When a Court desires that a summons issued by it shall be served at any place outside its local jurisdiction, it shall ordinarily send such summons in duplicate to a Magistrate within whose local jurisdiction the person summoned resides, or is, to be there served.

68. Proof of service in such cases and when serving officer not present.—

1. When a summons issued by a Court is served outside its local jurisdiction, and in any case where the officer who has served a summons is not present at the hearing of the case, an affidavit, purporting to be made before a Magistrate, that such summons has been served, and a duplicate of the summons purporting to be endorsed (in the manner provided by section 62 or section 64) by the person to whom it was delivered or tendered or with whom it was left, shall be admissible in evidence, and the statements made therein shall be deemed to be correct unless and until the contrary is proved.
2. The affidavit mentioned in this section may be attached to the duplicate of the summons and returned to the Court.

…

82. Proclamation for person absconding.—

1. If any Court has reason to believe (whether after taking evidence or not) that any person against whom a warrant has been issued by it has absconded or is concealing himself so that such warrant cannot be executed, such Court may publish a written proclamation requiring him to appear at a specified place and at a specified time not less than thirty days from the date of publishing such proclamation.
2. The proclamation shall be published as follows:—
   
   1. 
      
      1. it shall be publicly read in some conspicuous place of the town or village in which such person ordinarily resides;
      2. it shall be affixed to some conspicuous part of the house or homestead in which such person ordinarily resides or to some conspicuous place of such town or village;
      3. a copy thereof shall be affixed to some conspicuous part of the Court-house;
   2. the Court may also, if it thinks fit, direct a copy of the proclamation to be published in a daily newspaper circulating in the place in which such person ordinarily resides.
3. A statement in writing by the Court issuing the proclamation to the effect that the proclamation was duly published on a specified day, in the manner specified in clause (i) of sub-section (2), shall be conclusive evidence that the requirements of this section have been complied with, and that the proclamation was published on such day.

…

87. Issue of warrant in lieu of, or in addition to, summons.—A Court may, in any case in which it is empowered by this Code to issue a summons for the appearance of any person, issue, after recording its reasons in writing, a warrant for his arrest—

1. if, either before the issue of such summons, or after the issue of the same but before the time fixed for his appearance, the Court sees reason to believe that he has absconded or will not obey the summons; or
2. if at such time he fails to appear and the summons is proved to have been duly served in time to admit of his appearing in accordance therewith and no reasonable excuse is offered for such failure. (India 1973, bold in original)

The information in the following paragraph was provided by the Managing Partner:

Summonses are issued by a magistrate or court and are served by police officers from the local police station or by a person who delivers legal documents for the court. If the summons cannot be delivered to the accused, it can be given to a family member, friend, sarpanch or lawyer, or posted outside the accused's "last known residence." "Usually" whoever receives the summons will sign to acknowledge the delivery, but if the recipient refuses to sign, a report is made as "evidence of service." If a copy of the summons is provided to a lawyer, the lawyer's signature "should be obtained" but that "depends upon the police official." A summons is a public document and can "always" be acquired from the police station (Managing Partner 14 Dec. 2021).

3. Obtaining a Lawyer

According to the Managing Partner, in India a lawyer is retained by signing a retainer agreement, also known as a Vakalatnama or power of attorney, and filing the original in court (Managing Partner 14 Dec. 2021). A sample of a Vakalatnama from the India e-Courts Services website is attached to this Response. Information on whether Vakalatnamas vary based on state could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response. The Managing Partner noted that the process is the same if the client is living abroad; the client can appoint someone to engage the services of a lawyer in India (Managing Partner 14 Dec. 2021). The Trustee stated that retainer agreements are governed under the Indian Contract Act, 1872, and that both written and verbal contracts are valid for retainer agreements "as long as the intention of the client and the advocate is clear and unequivocal" (Trustee 31 Dec. 2021). The same source further stated that when pleadings are filed in court, a Vakalatnama is required (Trustee 31 Dec. 2021).

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim for refugee protection. Please find below the list of sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

References

India. 7 September 2016. Supreme Court of India. Youth Bar Association of India v. Union of India. Writ Petition (Criminal), No. 68 of 2016. [Accessed 17 Jan. 2022]

India. 1973. The Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973. [Accessed 14 Jan. 2022]

The Indian Express. 8 September 2016. "Supreme Court Asks States to Upload All FIRs on Websites Within 24 Hours." [Accessed 23 Dec. 2021]

Institute for Development and Communication (IDC). N.d. "Saanjh Kendras." [Accessed 14 Jan. 2021]

Lawyers Collective. N.d. "About Us." [Accessed 31 Dec. 2021]

Managing Partner, law firm in Punjab. 14 December 2021. Correspondence with the Research Directorate.

Punjab. N.d.a. Punjab Police. "Frequently Asked Questions." [Accessed 17 Dec. 2021]

Punjab. N.d.b. Punjab Police. "Frequently Asked Questions: FIRs." [Accessed 17 Dec. 2021]

Punjab. N.d.c. Punjab Police. "E-governance." [Accessed 23 Dec. 2021]

Trustee, Lawyers Collective. 31 December 2021. Correspondence with the Research Directorate.

Additional Sources Consulted

Oral sources: Asian Legal Resource Centre; assistant professor at a law school in Punjab; associate professor of administrative law at a university in Punjab; Ensaaf; Human Rights Law Network; lawyer in Punjab who worked for the Government of Haryana; Punjab – Punjab Police; Punjab & Haryana High Court Bar Association; Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee; Voices for Freedom.

Internet sites, including: Aaptaxlaw.com; Amnesty International; Australia – Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade; Belgium – Commissariat général aux réfugiés et aux apatrides; ecoi.net; EU – European Asylum Support Office; Fédération internationale pour les droits humains; Freedom House; Human Rights Law Network; India – Ministry of Home Affairs, Bureau of Police Research and Development; IndiaFilings; iPleaders; Legal Service India; Norway – LandInfo; Punjab and Haryana High Court Bar Association; Transparency International India; UK – Home Office; UN – Refworld, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights; US – Department of State.

Attachment

India. N.d. Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology, eCourts Services. Vakalatnama. Translated by the Translation Bureau, Public Services and Procurement Canada. [Accessed 17 Jan. 2022]