Complaint and Protest Petition under CrPC, 1973 Abhedya Rajeev BASICS OF LAW Mon, Jul 27, 2020, at ,10:34 PM Complaint: Under clause (d) of section 2 of the Act, the term 'complaint' is defined. Sec. 2(d) states that any allegation made orally or in writing to a magistrate stating that some person, whether known or unknown, has committed an offence, but does not include a police report. The allegation is made with a view that the magistrate would take action under this Code. The clause explains that a report made by a police officer in a case that discloses, after investigation, the commission of a non-cognizable offence shall be deemed to be a complaint; and the police by whom such report is made shall be deemed to be the complainant. Protest Petition: The term protest petition is not defined under criminal law. It is an opportunity for the victim to raise objections against the conclusions of the investigation made by the police; in general, it is filed when police presented the final report under section 173 of Cr.P.C., 1973 wherein the police concludes that the allegations are not made out against the accused. For instance, a person files a complaint before a magistrate. The magistrate then, under sec. 156(3) of the Code, orders the police to investigate. After investigation, police submit the final report to the magistrate under sec. 173(2). If the aggrieved person or the complainant is not satisfied with the police report, he can then file a protest petition before the concerned court and stating that he is not satisfied with the final report of the police, submitted after investigation. In plain words, the Protest Petition is a representation made by the victim to the court during or after the completion of an investigation by the police. Such a petition is treated as Complaint under Section 190 of the Code of Criminal Procedure by the concerned court. But, according to the Supreme Court, in Vishnu Kumar Tiwari v. State of Uttar Pradesh(2019), if the Magistrate was convinced based on the consideration of the final report, the statements under Section 161 of the Code that no prima facie case is made out, certainly the Magistrate could not be compelled to take cognizance by treating the protest petition as a complaint to invite the procedure thereof being followed for further proceeding. Procedures to be followed by the magistrates, when Protest petition comes before him: When a protest petition is filed before the magistrate, the essential ingredients of the complaint must be satisfied in the protest petition. Then the Magistrate can take the cognizance under sec. 190(1) (a) of the CrPC. After the final report is submitted by the police and the protest petition is filed, the magistrate has three options available to him which as follows: He may accept the Final Report and may also reject the Protest Petition; He may accept the Final Report but treat the Protest Petition as a complaint and proceed under Section 200 and 202 of the Code; He may accept the Protest Petition and reject the Final Report and take cognizance under Section 190(1)(b) of the Code. The accurate legal position is that the Magistrate is not bound to agree to the final report submitted by the police officials. The Magistrate can disagree with that report and take cognizance even on account of police papers if any submitted along with the police report even though if any protest petition is not filed before him. The magistrate can do another thing i.e. without taking cognizance if he thinks fit that the matter is not accurately investigated by the police officers then, in that case, the magistrate can direct for further investigation of crime under section 173 (8) of Code of Criminal Procedure. Therefore, where the Protest Petition is filed, the procedure prescribed for trial of the complaint case has to be followed.