Bengaluru, Feb 14: In a major embarrassment to the police, the Karnataka High Court has termed as illegal the prohibitory orders imposed under Section 144 of CrPC by the City Police Commissioner in December 2019 in the light of the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protests in Bengaluru.
The orders were passed “without application of mind” and without following due procedures, the court noted. Giving reasons for upholding the arguments of the petitioners that there was no application of mind by the Police Commissioner (Bhaskar Rao) before imposing restrictions, a division bench of the High Court said he had not recorded the reasons, except reproducing the contents of letters addressed to him by the Deputy Commissioners of Police (DCPs).
The state government had contended that prohibitory orders were passed based on reports submitted by the DCPs who expressed apprehension about anti-social elements creating law and order problems and damaging public property by taking advantage of the anti-CAA protests.
The High Court bench said the Police Commissioner should have conducted inquiry as stated by the Supreme Court to check the reasons cited by the DCPs who submitted identical reports. Except for this, there were no facts laid out by the Police Commissioner, the court said.
“There is complete absence of reasons. If the order indicated that the Police Commissioner was satisfied by the apprehension of DCPs, it would have been another matter,” it said.
“The apex court has held that it must record the reasons for imposition of restrictions and there has to be a formation of opinion by the district magistrate. Only then can the extraordinary powers conferred on the district magistrate can be exercised. This procedure was not followed. Hence, exercise of power under Section 144 by the commissioner, as district magistrate, was not at all legal”, the bench said.
“We hold that the order dated December 18, 2019 is illegal and cannot stand judicial scrutiny in terms of the apex court’s orders in the Ramlila Maidan case and Anuradha Bhasin case,” the HC bench said while upholding the arguments of Prof Ravivarma Kumar, who appeared for some of the petitioners.
Partly allowing a batch of public interest petitions questioning the imposition of prohibitory orders and cancelling the permission granted for protesters in the city, the bench of Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice Hemant Chandangoudar observed that, unfortunately, in the present case, there was no indication of application of mind in passing prohibitory orders.
The bench said the observation was confined to this order only and it cannot be applicable in general. If there is a similar situation (necessitating imposition of restrictions), the state is not helpless, the court said.
A female spiritual leader and president of Basava Dharma Peetha, Mate Mahadevi, said on Saturday that there had been an increase in sexual assaults against women as “girls roam in the night freely.”
Comments
I could not refrain from commenting. Perfectly written!
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Tight slap on akshay kumar who encourage girls to dress half naked despite of repeated sexual harassment.
Good one Mate Ji.
Now Naren Thailand will go for massage with burnol and itchguard. hahaha
Its not Arab way of dressing....but its Islamic way of dressing....and mentioned in the holy Quran.....please read and understand it....
Any more doubts about the Islamists and Hindutvavadis being of similar mindset?
Wow Last Line sounds GOOD. but True ...and bitter to Bhakths
This is 100% true,
The person who said is a lady.
When dress becomes, dressless, male mingles with female,
then is it not a fast invitation for all type of sexual harassment ?
The Sadhvi said is perfectly true.
It is not necessary, unlike independence or other religious days.
celebrate well decently,
We have no choice to claim decency, free from sexual harassments
when we don't follow these simple ethics.
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