How procedural correction is a game changer in legal strategy

The law enforcement in India is fragmented between states and agencies responsible for investigation of organised crimes are underfunded and non-performing.Trafficking was dealt with as a local issue where FIR in source area only includes accused of source area and destination area FIR will only mention brothel managers as traffickers. The investigation was the sole responsibility of local police officers who do not have skills and resources to investigate organized crime, which require interstate investigation. Moreover, sources are that police do not include trafficking sections in the FIR, it leads to impunity of traffickers.

Our intervention

Survivors, social workers and Lawyers worked together strategically address the systemic loophole in three ways:

a. Survivors have access to quality legal aid to challenge the LEA at the form of Procedural Correction to include appropriate trafficking sections in the FIR, challenge the shoddy investigation done by local police officers and demand transferring case to Anti Human Trafficking Unit (AHTUs) and demand interstate investigation.
b. Survivors will challenge the loophole of lower court to High court with help from High Court Lawyers. Any favourable judgement in this strategic litigation process, therefore, will be applicable for other survivors with similar negligence.
c. File Public Interest Litigation on Interstate Investigation in Bombay High Court in order to have systemic shift.

Impact

1. There is a high success rate in Procedural Correction especially in High Court. One such example is, three years back, Lawyers had to do Protest Petition and wait for favourable judgement to transfer the case from local police station to AHTU, which was both time and resource consuming. Now, lawyers are writing letters to local police officers in reference to the Sangita Sahu judgement.
2. Currently survivors and their family members are facing fewer challenges not only to register their FIR, but also to ensure appropriate sections are getting mentioned in the FIR.
3. AHTUs started visiting the destination as part of the investigation. Wherever necessary survivors accompany the investigation officer to visit the place of crime and identify the traffickers.

Challenges

PIL has not yielded much result. There was very slow movement throughout and none of the Tafteesh strategies worked well to speed up the process.