Mumbai Police needs to stop bullying the people

The answer to ldquowhy police highhandednessrdquo is usually found in the the forcersquos sense of exceptionalism and entitlement mdash that because of the uniform they can get away with anything And then there are cases where legal provisions some good some ambiguous and bad are used as a cover for illegal intimidation and rampant extortionLast week the Bombay High Court came down on such a law or rather an institutionalised malpractice mdash that of ldquochapter proceedingsrdquo Simply put these pertain to execution of bonds to secure good behaviour and maintenance of peaceUnder Section 107 of the Code of Criminal Procedure CrPC an Executive Magistrate based on reasonable suspicion as a preventive measure might ask a person to execute a bond swearing that he would not breach public tranquillity Note that it cannot be applied willy nilly mdash the law mdash Section 111 of the CrPC mdash mandates a detailed process designed to weed out any arbitrary actionBut Mumbai Police which like its counterparts elsewhere in India considers it to be a law unto itself had a different way of going about things There was no Executive Magistrate to do the needful instead police stations were sending information to the respective Assistant Commissioners of Police ACP who were then issuing the orders True that an ACP holds the rank of a Special Executive Magistrate with quasijudicial powers but with authority comes inexorable responsibility However not only was authority being used in the most irresponsible even cavalier manner it was also being abusedAn RTI campaign in 2009 by the National AntiCorruption and Crime Prevention Committee a citybased NGO brought the abuses to light The replies to RTI applications showed that between January 2007 and December 2008 11 police stations initiated chapter proceedings in 1418 cases In 598 of those cases notices and orders were issued without recording any evidence that is the provision mandating the existence of reasonable suspicion was flagrantly violatedA 2013 case in which a couple from Goregaon were served with such notices because they took on illegal hawkers in their locality shows why evidence was dispensed with Who needs proof when it can be manufactured especially when very few dare to drag the police to court But the couple did and the High Court quashed the notices upbraiding the police for their malice It isnrsquot difficult to spot an obvious nexus between the ldquoerrantrdquo cops and illegal hawkers but the authorities took no penal action let alone investigate the matter Besides these notices for good conduct the police also oversteps its jurisdiction and issues externment orders called tadipaar in the local patois A person can be ordered to stay off the limits of a particular area so long as such order is based on some authority of law But despite Section 107 providing for no such exercise of power there were many cases of externment orders being slapped In some of them the police was acting as henchmen of those who wanted to fix their rivalsOne case did go to the High Court which in 2008 asked the government to ponder over the matter and come up with appropriate remedial action but thatrsquos all one has heard about it till dateThen there are arcane laws such as Section 110 of the Bombay Police Act mdash which prohibits ldquoindecent actsrdquo mdash used as vehicles for moral policing and extortion It is one of the most dreaded of provisions mdash because any act of intimacy or affection mdash a peck on your partnerrsquos cheek putting your arm around her or couplesrsquo arms around each other holding hands with a member of the opposite sex in a public place mdash could make one liable for penal action Since the law does not define ldquoindecentrdquo we have too many instances of lsquovice squadsrsquo in khaki running amok heckling people terrifying couples into coughing up sums of money If there was a lsquoKiss of Loversquo protest at Marine Drive there would have been murder and mayhemThis bullying provision is yet to be either repealed or challenged in the courts but while we wait for that perhaps the Police Commissioner could start by ordering his men to desist from enforcing it Saurav is associated with the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative Delhi which works towards better policing You can follow him on Twitter SauravDatta29