LOOK OUT CIRCULAR
For most Indians, the term LOC would normally mean the Line of Control. However in Indian legal context LOC means Lookout Circular.
Meaning of LOC:
•It is a circular used by authorities to check whether a travelling person is wanted by the police. LOC is a coercive measure to make a person surrender to investigating agency or courts of law. It is generally issued against absconding criminals/ accused to stop them from entering or crossing borders or to track /detain the wanted person and hand them over to appropriate authority.
Types of LOC:
•Local LOC: It is limited to a particular town / city area. In this case, usually the LOC is issued to the local Airport, Sea port, Train or Bus stations.
•National LOC: Is a nationwide circular to all the Airports, Seaports, and border agencies across the border within a country.
•International LOC: International circular to different countries’ Airports, Seaports and across the international Border agencies. This has a limitation of bilateral understanding between the countries.
•Section 498A IPC and LOC: Usually issued by the Police against the accused NRI husband and his family members after the Police register an FIR. In some cases, the Court orders the same against the accused NRI’s, if the accused does not surrender to the court within the stipulated time interval given.
Authority to issue LOC:
•LOC can be issued only with the approval of an officer not below the rank of Deputy Secretary to the Government of India/ Joint Secretary in the State Government /Superintendent of Police concerned at the district level. It can also be issued by the court before which the criminal case lies.
Principles to issue LOC:
The basic guidelines regarding the issuance of LOC’s in relation to Indian citizens issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs are as follows:
•The request to issue/opening of LOC must be issued with the approval of an officer in authority. The authorities includes the Ministry of Home Affair, Ministry of External Affairs, the Customs and Income Tax Department, Directorate of Revenue intelligence, Central Bureau of Investigation, Court, Interpol, Regional passport Officers, Police authorities in various States, etc.
•Lookout circulars/notice for all immigration check posts against any Indian person can be issued only in the format prepared by the Home Ministry.
•The notice issuing agency must give full identification details of the accused person on an already prescribed format. LOC will not be issued for less than three identity parameters other than name of the accused.
Performa of LOC:
•The request for opening of LOC is required to be made to all immigration Check-posts in the country in the Official Format prescribed by the MHA.
•The details of the person looked out for in the circular includes: Name, address, Picture / photo or description of the person’s physical appearance, Passport number/details, other unique identification card number, alleged offence details / case involved in.
•In cases linked to, terrorist, anti national elements etc, LOC can be issued without complying with all rules, parameters or prescribed Performa.
Validity of LOC:
•LOC is valid for a period of one year. However, in case the originating agency wants to extend the validity beyond one year, it can ask for the extension before the expiry of the one-year period. If no request is made for the extension of the LOC within the stipulated period of one year, the Immigration Officer concerned is authorized to suspend the LOC.
•In the case of Court and Interpol, LOC does not expire within one year.
Consequences of LOC:
•Issuance of LOC can impact different persons differently. It curtails person’s ability to travel in and outside of country. The person has to face arrest or detention at the place where found.
Right to Information:
LOC is highly confidential document. Unless the case is high profile, whether the LOC is issued or not is not known to public at large.
Still one can try to get the information from the following sources:
•Police Station where the FIR is lodged
•District SP/DSP Office or similar rank officer in any investing agency.
•Immigration Authorities
•Foreigner Regional Registration Office (FRRO) in case of NRI.
•Trial Court records, if court have initiated the issuance of LOC.
Steps to be followed when LOC is issued:
•Have all the legal documents with you.
•Obtain Anticipatory bail in the case.
•Confirm whether the LOC is issued against you by the police / court and also the type of LOC.
•Show the certified copy of the Anticipatory bail to the authorities whilst entering the country. For e.g.: to immigration officers in the airport during the immigration check.
•Authorities should take a photocopy of the Anticipatory bail and hand back the original to you, so that you take your originals with you and proceed.
•Moreover, if the authorities try to detain you, get in touch with concerned Police (Sub Inspector / Deputy Superintendent Police/Investigating Officer) to inform the immigration authorities that you are already enlarged on Anticipatory bail and that they do not require your arrest. If they fail to do so, the victim can file a complaint against them next day detailing the violation of your rights and the contempt of the court order i.e. Anticipatory bail.
•Whilst regularizing the bail or whilst seeking the regular bail in the court, file a supplementary application seeking the LOC to be lifted.
•Failing to file supplementary application, one should look for the bail conditions to make sure there are no restrictions like not to leave the country without prior permission of the court. If there is such condition, please do get the permission from the court and keep the certified copy of the court’s order permitting your departure from the country to produce before the immigration officers in the airport or sea-port.
•One need to push the police to forward the court order to the concerned authorities (the concerned police station and in turn to the immigration authority at the port) to lift the LOC altogether as well as keeping the certified copy with yourself in hand. You need to request the copy of the confirmation for the same from the Police or ask for a letter confirming the same (this is in addition to the court order).
Cancellation or Lifting of LOC:
LOC can be withdrawn by the authority that issued and can also be rescinded by the trial court where case is pending or having jurisdiction over concerned police station on an application by the person concerned.
After getting LOC withdrawn by the authority or court, apply for multiple certified copies of the same. Provide one certified copy with covering letter to investigating officer; SP/DSP concerned and send a copy to the nodal officer at, ‘Deputy Director, Bureau of Immigration (Bol), East Block-VIII, R K Puram, New Delhi-110066.
If you have LOC removal court order, the immigration officer would contact the originator and only on confirmation the LOC will be cancelled or lifted.
Authored by:
Adv. Shirin Yusuf,
Associate,
MENTO ASSOCIATES.