Under the Shadow of Bias: Critical Examination of Law Enforcement Actions as against the Experiences of Marginalised Groups in India

This research delves into the intersection of law enforcement practices and socio-legal marginalisation in India and emphasises how institutional bias within law enforcement disproportionately affects religious minorities, caste-oppressed groups and other similarly situated vulnerable communities. The study exposes the dual role of policing agencies- as protectors of the legal order and as potential instruments of coercion to unveil their complicity in reinforcing social hierarchies through subjugation, active and passive violence, silence and evasion. Employing a doctrinal approach supplemented by empirical findings from human rights bodies and judicial inquiries, this piece analyses key legal safeguards present in the erstwhile Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (hereinafter as, CrPC) alongside landmark rulings of the Supreme Court of India. It makes explicit the consistent failure of state authorities to uphold the constitutional mandates of Articles 14, 15 and 21 to reveal how inherent biases manifest in day-to-day law enforcement mechanisms in the country. Through detailed case studies of custodial violence against oppressed groups, the use of draconian laws and a routine denial of police protection in caste, religious and gender-based violence, this paper demonstrates how discriminatory policing practices continue to remain entrenched in India’s everyday legal processes. The paper reminds us of the delays, refusals, and manipulations in the lodging of FIRs which operate as tools of systemic exclusion. The study argues for impending reforms in state mechanisms to hold the law enforcement agencies accountable, through independent complaints authorities, community policing models and the institutionalisation of anti-discrimination training. In doing so, the paper aids the discourse on transformative justice, state accountability, and the democratisation of law enforcement in India.