Salary of cops stayed over inaction

Saurabh Malik
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, September 13

Describing police inaction as a joke upon “the court process and procedure”, the Punjab and Haryana High Court today stayed the salary of an investigation officer and a Station House Officer of a police station concerned. The direction came in a case where the police failed to act even after the anticipatory bail plea of a person was dismissed as withdrawn some two years back.

The Bench made it clear that the order would come into operation if the person was not arrested within a week and would remain in force till the next hearing in December. Justice Rajbir Sehrawat of the High Court was hearing a petition filed by Jaswinder Singh against the State of Punjab and other respondents.

HC tells Ludhiana CP to file affidavit

The Ludhiana Commissioner of Police (CP) has been directed to file an affidavit specifying the date whenever the petitioner is arrested. He has also been directed to specify whether the salary of the officials was stopped in fact. The case will now come up for further hearing in December third week.

As the case came up for preliminary hearing through videoconferencing, an Additional Advocate General appearing on the state’s behalf accepted the notice of motion issued by Justice Sehrawat. Responding to a query, the state counsel pointed out that even a challan had not been presented in the case. He added this was despite the fact that an FIR in the matter was registered way back in December 2018.

Justice Sehrawat asserted that a perusal of the records showed that the petitioner had earlier also preferred a similar application for anticipatory bail, which was dismissed as withdrawn on July 9 last year. Despite the lapse of about two years, the police were yet to take action in the case.

In his detailed order, Justice Sehrawat said: “Accordingly, it is ordered that the payment of salary of the investigating officer of the case and the SHO of the police station concerned shall remain stayed till the next date of hearing, if the petitioner is not arrested within a period of one week from today”.

Before parting with the order, Justice Sehrawat directed the Ludhiana Commissioner of Police to file an affidavit specifying the date whenever the petitioner is arrested. He has also been directed to specify whether the salary of the officials was stopped in fact. The case will now come up for further hearing in December third week.