The unjustified use of Section 151 of CrPC to detain people in the guise of potential threat came under the scanner of Bombay High Court on Thursday.

On a petition filed by two activists against their illegal detention during Hillary Clinton’s visit, the court made it clear that the police cannot interfere with the liberty of an Indian citizen when some American dignitary visits the country.

The Division Bench of Justice Bilal Nazki and Justice A R Joshi on Thursday stated that there was a “question of self-respect of India as a nation”. Feroze Mithiboriwala of Awami Bharat and Aslam Gazi of Jamat-e-Islam had filed the petition.

After going through Section 151, which states that the officer should know of a design to commit some offence, Justice Nazki felt there was a need to go further into the interpretation of the Section and appointed advocate N N Gawankar as amicus curie to assist in the case.

“Why should we punish our own citizen,” he asked. “If an American citizen comes, our citizen is behind bars.”

The judge said the police can detain anybody if the court accepted their interpretation. “You can take us also,” he added.

When additional public prosecutor Dinesh Adsule argued that the activists were detained as they were planning some demonstration, the court retorted that this is an independent country and demonstrations are permitted in India. The court later adjourned the hearing for a week.

Meanwhile, in a significant relief to female bar singers, the court held that the police cannot engage their highhandedness and harrass the artistes without framing any rules or conditions. The court allowed the bar owners to “engage any number of persons irrespective of their sex” and granted liberty to the state to frame rules and conditions.

... contd.