Very often there are situations where land conflicts arise. These conflicts need the intervention of other authorities, like the police or the land record keepers, to be resolved. In this module, we would study the role of police.

Role of Police

The maintenance of law and order is very important in the villages. To prevent crimes and to punish the offender's police force is required. The highest police officer at the district level is the superintendent of police. He is helped by other police officers in maintaining law and order in the district. In the police, the station house officers (SHO) are in charge of the police stations.

Under him, we find several constables who carry out his/her orders. The main function of the local police is to maintain law and order in their respective areas. For every police station, be it in town or village, there is only some area that comes under or informs the police about any theft, accident, injury, fight, etc, only in the police stations which cover their areas.

For example, if you live in Rohini in Delhi and want to report a theft in your locality, you need to go only to the police station. Then it is the responsibility of the police of that station to investigate, enquire and take action on the cases within its area. The written complaint lodged with the police is known as an FIR. It is an important document because it is only after the FIR is registered in the police station that the police start the investigation process.

However, the police may not investigate the case even if you have filed an FIR, if the case is not of serious nature or if the police feel that there is not enough ground to investigate. Let us see a case study!

In the district of Rohini, Delhi. There was a theft at Mr. Gupta�s House when the family was sleeping. Mr. Gupta doubted that the theft was conducted on the behest of Ghanshyam, who had earlier too been involved in these types of theft. Mr. Gupta went to the police station that covered his area and told the person in charge about the theft. The person in charge, that is the SHO, told Mr. Gupta to give the complaint in writing so that he could take action against the culprit at the earliest.

Read More: Rural Administration: Maintenance of Land Records - Class 6 Civics