Early on a Monday morning, a palpable sense of urgency permeates the crowd near Ajanta Gate in Hyderabad’s busy Nampally area, a key entry point to the ongoing All India Industrial Exhibition, locally referred to as ‘Numaish’ in Urdu. However, they are not headed to the exhibition; the crowd is making its way to Manoranjan Complex, situated off historic Mozamjahi Market Road, a stone’s throw from the exhibition. Ironically named (Manoranjan means entertainment in Hindi), this complex houses an array of courtrooms where the fate of many hang in the balance. Men of various age groups step forward to face a judge or speak with constables deputed there to settle fines related to ‘ePetty’, an evidence-based enforcement tool used to book cases for petty violations concerning public nuisance.
Part the motley crowd is Shiva Kumar, a youth in his early 20s who runs a mirchi bajji stall in Gowliguda, one of the older neighbourhoods in south Hyderabad, a hub for road transport, and automotive spare parts businesses. “A few weeks ago, police landed up at my stall around 7.30 p.m., took photos and left. Then, I got a message on WhatsApp, informing me that an e-Petty case had been booked against me for blocking the road [carriageway],” he says. A closer look at the message shows that a case for ‘road obstruction’ under Section 66 (G) of the Hyderabad City Police (CP) Act, a Nizam-era law, has been booked against him.
In 2018, the then Director General of Police of Telangana, M.Mahender Reddy introduced the ePetty Case Management System, which was touted as a deterrent against serious crimes. “When petty crimes are checked promptly, serious crimes are automatically prevented. The e-Petty Case app will help us track the transformative process of petty offenders into hardcore criminals,” he had said.
Given the technological thrust to policing in Telangana, it is common to see tablets, and not batons, in the hands of police personnel. The ePetty app is designed to assist officers in registering cases on the spot through a tab. It facilitates the capturing of photographs of the accused, recording details of the scene of offence, geo-tagging the location, and digital collection of other available evidence. Moreover, it automatically generates a chargesheet based on the evidence, to be filed in court during the trial.
Previously, minor offences such as triple-riding on two-wheelers, parking in no-parking zones, or vending on the carriageway attracted fines under the Motor Vehicle Act. Paying the penalty wiped one’s record clean. However, since 2018, a growing number of such cases is being registered under the Hyderabad CP Act, where the offences stay on record, opening the possibility of imprisonment in future.
Confusion and lack of awareness
At the Manoranjan Courts Complex, plain-clothed court jawans from different police stations place a stack of papers — chargesheets — on the ground floor parapet wall. These documents inform the accused of the offence they are charged with. Huddled around them are those waiting for their names to be called out. A majority of ePetty cases here involve charges of drink-driving.
A flight of stairs leads one to the first floor corridors, which smack of uncertainty and apprehension. Here too, men await instructions from court jawans, but the nature of the alleged offences they face is different.
Md. Saleem (name changed to protect identity) has been booked for keeping his imitation jewellery stall open till late in the night, but this is not his first tryst with an ePetty case. “I run my stall near Charminar Police Station. This is the third ePetty case against me since 2018,” he says. Scared of repercussions, he refuses to elaborate on the previous cases. His uncle, Md Akram, interjects, “I am here to offer [moral] support. We are only trying to make a living, but this is too much. We have to stand here for hours on end and do not even know what to do. Our dhanda (business) gets affected.”
In another case, what typically would have resulted in a ₹1,200 fine for a triple riding traffic violation under the Motor Vehicle (MV) Act is documented as an ePetty offence instead. A 45-year-old man at the courts complex, who did not wish to be identified, says, “I was out with my wife and son on my two-wheeler when police stopped me and took a photo. I have been waiting for my turn since 7 a.m. and it is way past 10 a.m. now. I don’t know the procedure here or how much longer to wait.”
What most, if not all, of them also do not know is that an ePetty case may have a negative impact on their future prospects, such as applying for a passport, as explicitly stated by the police during press conferences.
“I did not know an ePetty case can have big consequences. I was under the impression that it was a minor fine. I cannot think about taking legal aid. Hiring an advocate would cost me ₹5,000. Where will I get one and how will I get that much money? You tell me, isn’t paying a fine better,” asks a young man of Moghalpura area, who was asked to pay a fine of ₹550 for violation under Section 21 (B) of the Hyderabad CP Act. The Section deals with “regulating traffic of all kinds in public streets or public places, and regulating the use of streets and public places by persons walking, driving, cycling or accompanying or leading cattle, with a view to prevent danger, inconvenience or obstruction to the public”.
When this newspaper reached out to others who had been summoned to court for ePetty cases, a majority said they were flabbergasted. A social entrepreneur, who preferred to remain anonymous, shares that in February 2022, police intercepted him in Mandi Miralam, a neighbourhood in the Old City of Hyderabad, and asked to get off his two-wheeler. “As soon as I got off, they took a photo on their tab. I asked them what the problem was. I had my driving licence, insurance and RC (vehicle registration certificate) papers. I kept asking what was wrong but they did not listen. It was nearly a whole year later that I got a message asking me to appear before a special metropolitan magistrate court. I was shocked. I was booked under Section 66 (B) of the CP Act. The chargesheet stated that I was found making “spot/ unavoidable repairs” to the vehicle. To this day, I do not know what it means,” he says.
Putting crime on record
A tender document released in August 2022 shows that the Telangana government sought to integrate the ePetty case module with the Crime and Criminal Tracking System (CCTNS). What began in 2004-05 as the Common Integrated Police Application, an initiative to digitise criminal records at the police station level, took the shape of CCTNS in 2009.
A Ministry of Home Affairs document states that the scope was widened to “integrate police data with other pillars of the criminal justice system, namely, courts, prisons, prosecution, forensics, and fingerprints”. The document lists one of its success stories in Telangana thus: “CCTNS enabled the State Police Department to identify 74 persons having criminal background during the recruitment process in which 10,500 participants appeared to join Police services”.
A court constable at Manoranjan Complex says, “It is the Traffic Police who take photographs of road violations and then forward those to us. We prepare the chargesheet and book them under Sections of the CP Act. According to instructions from our superior officers, we book ePetty cases against those who try to hide vehicle number plates with face masks. They even bend number plates in an attempt to avoid fines. What if the vehicle has been used in a crime? This is meant to be a deterrent.”
A court staff, who was assisting the bench, says that Section 21 and its relevant provisions are invoked against those who keep their shops open beyond stipulated hours. In cases where the offence is repeated, Section 76 is invoked, which prescribes harsher punishment that results in simple imprisonment for up to five days. “Section 21(B) is for vehicle offences while Section 66(G) is for pushcarts and small businesses,” he says. The ePetty Case Management System has provisions to book people under six different laws and over 160 sections.
The integration of the ePetty case module into CCTNS has, however, raised concerns among privacy activists. They worry that people with petty cases, even after paying fines, would continue to remain under surveillance.
Activist Srinivas Kodali, who has been advocating against State surveillance, asserts, “Every criminal profile created is shared across various police departments through systems like CCTNS. This means that anybody with such a profile, when traveling to a different State, could be subjected to surveillance, similar to how Telangana police monitor individuals from other States.”
Surge in petty cases
The use of e-policing in Telangana, Kodali adds, has increased the level of policing, leading to a surge in the number of challans and cases against people. And he appears to have a point. While petty cases were booked in the past, the number surged from 2018 with the introduction of the ePetty Case Management Systems.
From 2015 to 2017, as many as 55,055 petty cases were booked. The number skyrocketed to 2,19,543 in 2018, and then to 3,18,990 in 2019, and 5,42,732 in 2020. Over 9 lakh chargesheets were filed during this period.
Recent police annual reports indicate that the Hyderabad City Police booked 3,78,732 ePetty cases in 2021, followed by 4,19,610 in 2022 and 2,19,977 last year.
A significant increase in filing ePetty cases can also be understood from data released by the National Lok Adalat, which dealt with 4,639 ePetty cases that were booked under the Disaster Management Act in Hyderabad Police Commissionerate limits. Most cases were booked during the thick of the COVID-19 pandemic. The NLA dealt with a total of 1,43,104 ePetty cases in the limits of the tri-commissionerate of Hyderabad, Cyberabad and Rachakonda.
The Association for Socio Economic Empowerment of the Marginalised (ASEEM), a research and advocacy group, points out that rampant slapping of ePetty cases has caused a great deal of hardship to marginalised groups and also those who come from economically weaker sections of society.
“Such groups and individuals are unaware of legal processes, and remedies available to them. Court cases are time consuming, and appealing against ePetty cases is expensive. Further, there is an unequal power dynamic between police and the citizenry. In this case, the alleged offender is at the mercy of the police. While chargesheets are shared, the accused needs more clarity on remedies available to him or her. The accused are seldom accompanied by a lawyer in petty case courts,” ASEEM office bearer and activist S.Q. Masood says.
Those who chose to appeal were in for a rude surprise. Documents accessed show a case was booked under Section 66 (G) of the CP Act against a person during the COVID-19 pandemic. The alleged offender chose to appeal in a higher court of law. But while the fine prescribed under the CP Act was ₹50, the court directed the appellant to furnish two sureties of ₹10,000 each. Shocked, the man filed an application to reduce the surety amount, after which it was lowered to ₹4,000 each.
Police maintain that the ePetty Case Management System is strictly procedure- and evidence-based. Therefore, there is no scope for manipulation. “The evidence is the photo which shows the offender committing the offence. The evidence puts arguments to rest,” says Deputy Commissioner of Police (South Zone) P. Sai Chaitnaya.
Asked whether he thinks people are aware of the difference between a first information report (FIR) and ePetty case, he says, “People do know that apart from small fines, there is a chance of imprisonment when ePetty cases are booked.”
