HC: No harm in publishing absconders’ names on Net

Chandigarh, January 5

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has made it clear that there was no harm in publishing the names of absconders on the Internet.

Justice Amol Rattan Singh asserted the Punjab Police Rules were promulgated in 1934, when there was no Internet. The only social media available at that time was newspapers and magazines.

Justice Singh said the statutory provisions of the Punjab Police Rules and any other statutory provisions not brought to the notice of the court would be adhered to by the two states of Punjab and Haryana and UT Chandigarh regarding absconders/persons not being arrested despite warrants for their arrest having been issued.

Justice Singh said the directions issued earlier by the court in Malak Singh’s case would be complied with strictly by the two states and the UT regarding entries and continuation of names of “accused persons” in the surveillance registers maintained in police stations.

The HC had earlier asked Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh Directors-General of Police to specify whether surveillance registers carrying names of “bad characters” were being reviewed continuously.

The direction came after Justice Singh was told that the HC had in 2005 ordered the forwarding of its orders copy to the police chiefs of the two states and the UT for further transmission to the district police chiefs with a direction to re-examine the surveillance registers maintained in the police stations. The HC had then expressed hope that the process would be completed within two months.

The matter was brought to the HC’s notice after Jaswinder Singh filed a petition against Punjab and other respondents. Appearing on his behalf, Navkiran Singh contended that the petitioner’s name appeared in a surveillance register maintained at the Rawalpindi police station in Kapurthala district. — TNS