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.
Comments
mande ijjandina marler naklu.... this cows issue came into highlights sine last 10-12 years, where were this RSS chaddis before that.... they dont have problem with eating cow, this people using cow as political issue for their personal gain....
If the cow is god y dont cow punish thm who done this
if we say in simple word if anyone brith and death he is not god and in this world no there who dont hve death everyone hve to face the death how come they are god even simple logic this ppl cant understand
Legalize beef everything is gonna right. Dakshina kannada and udipi police dpt. fit for perform duty as gowrakshak. Police from Goa and other states ruled by bjp are deprived from this opportunity.
It happens only in India......
In Europe, America, China, Japan, par Eastern countries.....millions of them used for lunch and dinner....don't you think they too are Gods for you....why don't you go and protest in front of United Nation to enact a law to stop it.....it require a lot of guts which you don't have it and all balls too....
India will not develop, it will remain like this forever....small thinking mind and heart....
Believe me it is not a fucking God at all.....
brutal assaults required on cattle thieves.
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