The Maharashtra police will now have to abide by the recent directions of the Supreme Court, concerning the arrest or registration of crime against judicial officers.
The Maharashtra police will now have to abide by the recent directions of the Supreme Court, concerning the arrest or registration of crime against judicial officers (JOs).
A letter written to the director general of police by the registrar general includes elaborate details of the guidelines issued by the apex court in a matter of Delhi Judicial Service Association versus State of Gujarat.
The guidelines are meant to be implemented by the state government as well as by the high courts and were thus discussed at a meeting of the administrative judges’ committee held in the chamber of the chief justice of the Bombay high court in January. These guidelines have now been forwarded to all the police stations in Mumbai and Maharashtra by the DGP.
The seven-point guidelines emphasise how a judicial officers should be arrested for any offence under intimation to district judge or the high court as the case may be.
However, in case of necessity for immediate arrest of the judicial officers the guidelines permit only technical or formal arrest.
However, such arrest has to be immediately communicated to the district or session judge of the concerned district and the chief justice of the high court.
Also, in case of an emergency arrest, the judicial officers will not be taken to the police station without the prior order or directions of the district and sessions judge of the district concerned, if available.
The guidelines also lay emphasis on how the judicial officers should be immediately allowed to get in touch with his family, legal adviser as well as other judicial officers of equal or higher rank.
The apex court has also clarified the procedure for recording the statement of the judicial officers, observing that neither can a statement be recorded nor any panchanama be drawn up nor a medical test be done except in presence of the legal adviser or other judicial officers.
Most importantly, the guidelines say that ordinarily there should be no handcuffing of a judicial officers.
However, the letter clarifies that these guidelines are not exhaustive but are minimum safeguards which must be observed in case of arrest of a judicial officers.
“The aforesaid guidelines were in regards to all offences in general, but when any criminal conduct is attributed to a judicial officers in discharge of his duties, we direct that in addition, no crime for investigation should be registered pursuant to any FIR without the permission of the chief justice of the high court concerned,” reads the letter.
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