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Punjab Police will no more parade the arrested accused before the media, the chiefs of police within the districts and the commissionerates in state have knowledgeable Additional Director General of Police (ADGP), Human Rights.
The senior superintendents of police and commissioners of police, in an official communique, have knowledgeable the ADG that they will be adopting the instructions issued by the Punjab Human Rights Commission (PHRC) on July 6, 2020. The PHRC had issued the instructions on a petition by Advocate Nikhil Saraf of Mohali.
Saraf, in his petition before the PHRC, had sought instructions to all of the police officers in Punjab that no accused ought to be paraded before media, as this observe is opposite to the instructions handed by the Supreme Court, quantities to gross violation of elementary rights of the residents, and is in opposition to all tenets of human rights.
The petitioner said within the grievance that state police was indulging in unconstitutional acts by parading accused before the media, “amounting to blatant transgression into the domain of judiciary, wherein the Punjab Police has given itself the right to adjudicate the crime and declare anyone a criminal” with out following due strategy of regulation.
“Our Constitution guarantees that an accused is innocent till proven guilty by the courts after following due process of law,” he contended.
Saraf additional submitted that in numerous judgments, the Supreme Court has said clearly and emphatically that parading of accused before media is grossly violative of Article 21 of the Constitution which ensures proper to life and liberty together with truthful trial. Meanwhile, numerous states have already made a really clear coverage on this difficulty and have issued related orders to the respective state police drive that no accused shall be paraded before the media.
“The colonial practice to parade accused before media (newspapers and television) as some hunted animal trophy is worst form of abuse of human rights of an individual. The British adopted this practice to ensure that the masses remain fearful and subservient to handful of rulers, and they were very successful in doing so, but this sort of abuse cannot be allowed to carry on in a free India that has placed fundamental rights of its citizens as non negotiable,” argued the petitioner.
The PHRC bench of Justice Iqbal Ahmed Ansari (Chairperson) taking cognizance of the matter referred to as for a report from the Punjab by means of the Director General of Police. A a duplicate of the grievance was ordered to be despatched every to the Punjab DGP and the DGP, Human Rights for compliance.
The DGP Human Rights had despatched an official communique to the SSPs and CPs to adjust to the instructions of the PHRC. In response, the 27 high police officers, together with SSPs and CPs, despatched a communique informing the DGP Human Rights that vital directions have been issued to all station home officers and in-charges of police posts for vital motion. The reviews obtained from the SSPs and CPs have been submitted before the PHRC. The matter is now scheduled at PHRC for March 22, 2021.
Hearing a petition filed by NGO People’s Union for Civil Liberties, a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court led by then Chief Justice of India RM Lodha in 2014 had requested safety companies to cease parading accused before the media. “Media briefings by investigating officer during ongoing investigations should not happen. It is a very serious matter. This issue touches upon Article 21,” the then Chief Justice had stated, including no matter is alleged by investigating officers throughout such media briefings “prejudices the person even before he is charged of the crime”.
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