In 2018, there is almost a 30% increase in the number of cases pending for more than 3 years with the Police
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
February 6, 2020
In an earlier story, it was observed that close to a quarter of the crimes are being disposed by the police due to lack of evidence. Data from NCRB’s 2018 CII report further indicates that there is almost a 30% increase in the number of cases pending with the police for more than 3 years.
An earlier
article of Factly analysed the status of disposal of cases inthe year 2018 at the level of Police. Over the years, the number of cases thatpolice deal with (both disposed & pending) has increased. As noted in theprevious article, it is concerning that close to 25% of the cases are disposedby police due to lack of evidence.
Oncea FIR is filed, the process at the police end includes – investigation of thecase and based on the investigation, either proceed with the charge sheet forfurther trial in the court or close the case by filing a Final report.
Thetimelines for each of these processes varies and this has a direct impact on thependency of cases with the police. This story examines the timeline of thecases that are pending with the police at various stages and also analyses thevariations based on nature of the such cases.
Around
26% of IPC cases are pending for more than one year with the Police
Asper NCRB’s
Crime in India (CII)-2018 report, there areover 12.39 lakh pending IPC cases with the police. Of these, nearly 43% i.e.around 5.3 lakh cases are pending from less than 6 months while another 31% ofthe pending cases are pending between 6 months and a year.
Morethan a quarter of the pending IPC cases at the end 2018 are pending for over ayear.
Ofthese, 2.58 lakh cases are pending between 1-3 years while a sizeable number ofcases i.e. more than 65 thousand cases are pending for more than 3 years.
Number
of IPC cases pending for more than 3 years increased in 2018
Ashighlighted in the earlier story, the total number of cases pending with thepolice at the end of 2018 has reduced compared to that of the previous year.
Amongthe cases
in 2017, there were around 5.08 lakh cases that were pending forless than 6 months while this increased to 5.3 lakh cases in 2018. Meanwhile, thenumber of cases whose pendency is between 6 months to a year has reduced in2018 compared to that of previous year.
However,the number of cases pending for more than one year has increased. In 2017, around3.15 lakh IPC related cases were pending for more than a year with the police whilethis increased to 3.24 lakhs in 2018. Among these, the number of cases pendingfor more than 3 years has increased substantially from around 51 thousand bythe end of 2017 to around 65 thousand by the end of 2018, an increase of nearly28%.
Kidnapping,
Forgery & Fraud cases are pending for a longer time
Amongall the crimes pending investigation at the end of 2018, IPC crimes such asHurt, Theft, Forgery, Cheating & Fraud, rash driving etc have the highestnumber of pending cases.
However,among these major crime heads, most of the cases relating to Hurt and rashdriving are pending for less than a year.
Outof the 1.59 lakh cases pending at the end of 2018 and relating to ‘Hurt’,around 80 thousand cases are pending for less than 6 months and another 48thousand are pending between 6 months to a year. Out of more than 30 thousandcases pending investigation for more than a year, only around 4 thousand casesare pending more than 3 years.
Meanwhile,1.79 lakhs out of 2.31 lakh cases relating to ‘Theft’ are pending investigation for less than a year, with around 50thousand cases pending for more than a year. Of these nearly 9.9 thousand casesare pending for over 3 years.
Casesrelating to IPC crimes of ‘Forgery, Cheating & Fraud’ have the highestnumber of cases pending investigation for more than 3 years with around 13thousand cases. These cases form nearly 10% of the 1.3 lakh such cases pendingwith the police. Around 40 thousand cases are pending for more than 1 year butless than 3 years.
Nearly35% of pending cases under ‘Kidnapping & Abduction’ are pending for over ayear i.e. around 23 thousand out of the nearly 67 thousand pending cases.
Increase
in the share of SLL crimes pending investigation for more than one year
Bythe end of the
year 2017, there were around 4.3 lakh crimes under SLL (Special& Local Laws) which were pending investigation with the police.  Of these, around 93 thousand were pending formore than a year i.e. 21% of the total pending SLL cases.
Atthe end
of 2018, the total number of pending cases under SLL havereduced to 4.03 lakhs. However, the number of cases under SLL crimes pendingfor more than a year increased to 1.06 lakhs i.e. 26% of all SLL cases. Morespecifically, the number of cases pending for over three years has increased by54%. By the end of 2017, these long pending cases (more than 3 years) were12,781 which increased to 19,729 by the end of 2018.
Amajor contributor towards this increase are the cases booked under variousLiquor and Narcotic Acts, especially State Prohibition Acts where in the numberof pending cases for more than three years increased from 74 by end of 2017 to2945 by end of 2018.
Increase
in the time taken by police for filing Charge sheet in IPC crimes
In
2017, police filed charge sheets in 21.47 lakh IPC cases whichfell to 21.38
lakhs in 2018.
Thetime taken to file the charge sheet has increased for 2018 compared to that ofthe previous year.
Thenumber of cases charge sheeted within 3 months has reduced from 12.25 lakhs in2017 to 11.57 lakhs in 2018. While there is a fall in both scenarios wherecharge sheet was filed ‘within 2 months’ and ‘from 2 to 3 months’, the major fallwas observed in the case of the former. The police could file charge sheet in IPC cases within 2 months forabout 6.39 lakhs in 2018 compared to 6.87 lakhs the previous year 2017.
Amongthe various IPC cases, there is across the board increase in the number of casesin 2018 where charge sheet was filed after 3 months. In 2017, charge sheet wasfiled after 2 years in more than 28 thousand cases which increased to more than33 thousand in 2018.
Thereduction in the number of cases charge sheeted in shorter duration pointstowards possible delays in investigation and administrative lapses. At the sametime, increase in charge sheeting the long pending cases is a positive sign.
Mostof the cases booked for ‘Rash driving’ are charge sheeted in a short periodwhile those booked for ‘forgery, cheating & fraud’ take longer periods forthe charge sheet to be filed.
Theimprovement in charge sheeting the long-standing cases is also seen in SLLrelated crimes. There were around 74 thousand cases pending for more than twoyears that were charge sheeted in 2017 which increased to around 86 thousandcases in 2018.  68% of the SLL cases werecharge sheeted within 3 months in 2018 compared 76% in 2017.
Increase
in number of IPC cases for which Final Reports were submitted in a short
period.
Thecases which are charge sheeted move to courts for trial. On the other hand,there are cases which are closed by the police itself by filing the finalreport. As observed in the earlier story, a major portion of cases were closeddue to lack of sufficient evidence.
Outof the total IPC cases in which the final reports were filed by the police in2018, final report was filed in 20% cases ‘within 2 months’, in 21% of thecases ‘between 2-3 months’ and in 26% of the cases ‘between 3-6 months’.  This share of the timeline categories in 2017was 21%, 18% and 23% respectively. There is a substantial increase in 2018, inthe proportion of cases where the final report was filed ‘between 2-3 months’and ‘between 3-6 months’.
Quickfiling of final reports was observed prominently in the case of ‘theft’.  In 2017, nearly 63% of the cases relating totheft were disposed within 6 months by filing final reports while thisincreased to 71% in 2018. The number of cases in which final reports were filedfor ‘theft’ also increased from 4.34 lakhs in 2017 to 5.05 lakhs in 2018.
Hurt,Kidnapping and Abduction, Rash driving , cruelty by husband or relatives are theother crime heads for which the Final Reports were filed in a shorter time during
2018.
Increase
in number of final reports file for SLL crimes pending for over a year
Meanwhilethe number of crimes under SLL in which final reports have been filed  are more evenly distributed among differenttimelines both for 2017 and 2018.However, a sharp increase is observed in filing of final reports for SLL casesthat were pending between 1-2 years i.e. 13 thousand in 2017 to 27 thousand in2018. A major chunk of these cases is under ‘Electricity Act’.
Thereis also an increase in immediate disposal of cases by filing final reports. SLLcases for which final reports were filed within 2 months increased from nearly30 thousand in 2017 to 37 thousand in 2018. Even in this instance, the increasecan be attributed to the quicker disposal of SLL cases under ‘Electricity Act’.
Increase
in disposal of cases pending since longer period of time as well as new cases
Asfar as the time taken for the police to disposal of cases i.e. either by filinga charge sheet or a final report, a general increasing trend is observed in disposalof cases pending for a longer time.
However,in terms of new cases, there is an increase in number of Final reportssubmitted in a short time, but the case isn’t the same for charge sheetingwhere there is a fall in cases disposed in a shorter time.
While early disposal of cases is appreciated, the context of maximum number of final reports being filed due to ‘lack of evidence’, indicates a trend of hurriedness among the law enforcement authorities to close the cases quickly without proper investigation. In the earlier story, it was observed that a major portion of such closed cases relate to ‘theft’, indicating that the culprits are never brought to justice in those cases.
Featured Image: Number of cases pending with the police