The government of Maharashtra on Thursday informed the Bombay high court that the police raids conducted on hotels in Malwani in Malad was legal because the police has the power to conduct such raids.
The government of Maharashtra on Thursday informed the Bombay high court that the police raids conducted on hotels in Malwani in Malad was legal because the police has the power to conduct such raids. However, it also told the court that the government was planning to frame guidelines so that officials do not misuse this power.
Chief public prosecutor S.S. Shinde made this statement before the division bench of Justice A.S. Oka and Justice G.S. Kulkarni, which was hearing a public interest litigation terming police raids in Malwani against consenting couples as illegal and exceeding from their limits last year.
The petitioner has claimed that the couples were fined for misbehaving in a public place while they were caught from hotel rooms and were far from public vision and hence the fine collected from them was wrong.
“What are the safeguards provided by the government to see that powers are not misused ” asked Justice Oka, adding that they are not referring to what had happened in Malwani in particular. “But there should be some safeguards so that the police do not exercise power which violates the right of privacy of a person,” said the bench.
The bench also said that if left at the discretion of police, there is apprehension that some motivated complaint would be filed or power misused. “If power is misused and damage is done to any individual, it will be permanent,” observed the bench.
Following this advocate Mr Shinde told the court that the state government wanted to prepare draft guidelines on this, but for this it would require the instructions of the commissioner of police, and he requested for more time.
Accepting his plea, the bench posted this matter for hearing on April 15. The bench, however, also asked the petitioner and the state to approach chief justice of the Bombay high court if they desired to transfer this matter to the bench which had already heard this matter substantially.
It may be recalled that the division bench headed by Justice V.M. Kanade had heard the petitioner on this issue.
