(1) A District Magistrate or a Sub-divisional Magistrate or any other Executive Magistrate or any police officer not below the rank of a Deputy Superintendent of Police may, on receiving information and after such inquiry as he may think necessary, has reason to believe that a person or a group of persons not belonging to the Scheduled Castes or the Scheduled Tribes is likely to commit an offence, or has threatened to commit any offence under this Act and is of the opinion that there is sufficient ground for declaring such area to be an area prone to atrocities, by order, declare such area to be an area prone to atrocities.
Legal Commentary & Landmark Judgments: Section 17
Section 17 mandates proactive preventive intervention by the district law and order machinery, empowering District Magistrates, Sub-Divisional Magistrates, and DSPs to declare atrocity-prone areas, execute preventive bonds, disarm vigilante groups, and invoke the preventive chapters of the criminal procedure code.
Victims and advocacy groups can invoke Section 17 by submitting a detailed memorandum to the District Magistrate and DSP when social tensions or boycott threats arise in a village. If the administration fails to act, file a writ of mandamus under Article 226 relying on NHRC and Section 17 to compel the declaration of an atrocity-prone area and the deployment of armed pickets. For an individual targeted by arbitrary preventive proceedings under Section 107/111 CrPC / Section 126/130 BNSS, challenge the show-cause notice if it lacks specific allegations of imminent breach of peace.