BENGALURU: The High Court of Karnataka has said that complaints under the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013, related to the offence of engaging people to clean septic tanks should be made before the local magistrate and not with the police.
The police can’t receive such complaints and register cases, the court said. Justice Shivashankar Amarannavar passed this order while quashing an FIR against Saroja S Bhairi, a doctor from Vidyanagar in Hubballi, filed by Vidyanagar police under Section 7 (read with Section 9) of the Act, based on a report submitted by the junior health inspector of the Hubballi-Dharwad Municipal Corporation. The court, however, granted liberty to the inspector to file a complaint with the magistrate.
Cognisance of offence
Based on the inspector’s complaint, the Vidyanagar police registered a case against the petitioner for allegedly engaging a person to clean a septic tank.
The petitioner contended that the court has to take cognisance of an offence under the Act as per Section 10 only on filing a complaint. But in this case, it is not a complaint as defined under Section 2(d) of the CrPC.
According to Section 2(d) of the CrPC, a complaint means any allegation made orally or in writing to a magistrate to take action for the offence committed.