New Delhi: The Supreme Court today decided
to examine whether its guidelines were being observed in
letter and spirit by police while making arrests.
A Bench comprising Justices B Sudershan Reddy and S S
Nijjar said it will hear the matter on Friday and allowed
senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi to file an application in
this regard.
When the matter was taken up, Singhvi, along with
advocate Amit Bhandari, submitted that it would be prudent to
make a review of the 13-year-old guidelines.
The senior advocate, who is assisting the court as an
amicus curiae in the matter, said he has prepared 13 questions
and selected nine states as a sample to analyse whether the
guidelines for arrest were complied with by the police or not.
He submitted that it has to be verified whether the 11
commandments on arrest as stated by the apex court in 1997 was
being displayed in English, Hindi and regional languages in
the police station or not.
Singhvi said reports would be sought from some states for
the duration of last three years in which they have to answer
about the instances of violation of guidelines and the nature
of action -- criminal or departmental - taken against the
erring police officials.
The states will have to respond to the questions relating
to the arrest of persons below 18 years, women and total death
in custody.
"What proceedings are initiated against the erring
officials, criminal or departmental etc?" he said referring
about the averment to be contained in the application.
Among the nine states selected by Singhvi are
Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka.
The apex court had in 1997 laid down guidelines for
making arrest while dealing with the D K Basu case in the wake
of largescale human rights violations and custodial deaths.
PTI
First Published: Monday, September 13, 2010, 23:05