Ensure fair probe in misbehaviour with warrant officer: HC to Panipat SP

Saurabh Malik

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Chandigarh, May 2

Making it clear that police misbehaviour with a court-appointed warrant officer and its utter disregard for judicial order cannot be “let off lightly”, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has directed Panipat Superintendent of Police to ensure “a fair and impartial inquiry”. He has also been directed to supervise the inquiry himself before taking it to its logical end.

Unfortunate incident

It’s an unfortunate incident, wherein a court-appointed warrant officer faced police misconduct. This has undermined the court’s authority and dignity, not of the warrant officer. — Justice Sant Parkash, HC

The direction came after Justice Sant Parkash’s Bench was told that a departmental inquiry had been marked against the “erring police officials”. They had been transferred to the Karnal police lines till the departmental inquiry’s completion.

The matter was brought to the High Court’s notice after a habeas corpus petition was filed by Bala Devi against the State of Haryana and other respondents in an alleged illegal detention case. The Bench, during the course of hearing, was told that the warrant officer appointed by the court to get the detainee released from alleged illegal custody faced misbehaviour from cops and was even chased by “some police officials”.

Referring to the warrant officer’s report and an affidavit by the State Director-General of Police, Justice Sant Parkash asserted that it appeared to be “a very unfortunate incident wherein the officer appointed by this court with regard to the illegal detention of a detenue faced misbehaviour by the police officials and the said conduct has undermined the authority and dignity of the court and not of the warrant officer”.

Justice Sant Parkash added that the DGP’s affidavit indicated that hot exchange of words was admitted by the higher authorities to some extent. But they had tried to shield their low-rank officials at the “helm of the affairs in misbehaving with the warrant officer”.

Justice Sant Parkash added the highhandedness of the police officials was well seen by their act of not only misbehaving with the warrant officer, but also chasing him in their jeep after he left the premises of Panipat CIA-III Staff.

“The police authorities have tried to justify their action by submitting in the affidavit that the police party, on the basis of secret information, left the CIA premises to catch hold a hard-core criminal. On the way, they saw the warrant officer’s vehicle moving towards Karnal and only saw an opportunity to tender apology and pacify the warrant officer and that was the only reason that they chased him in the jeep,” Justice Sant Parkash observed before issuing directions to the SSP.