The Government may still be debating laws to counter terror but the Delhi Police is sure of what it wants. To counter terrorism effectively, they say, Supreme Court guidelines on arrests should be changed.

In a letter to Union Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta dated November 26, Delhi Police Commissioner Y S Dadwal has sought a review of the guidelines issued in the D K Basu case. The main guidelines issued by the Supreme Court in the D K Basu judgment of 1996 — which spelt out the rights of an arrestee in custody — are now part of police procedure and have to be followed during all arrests. Among them are guidelines that say policemen should be wearing visible and clear identification tabs when they set out to make arrests. This, says Dadwal, is not always possible “as most of the anti-terrorist unit personnel as also those of the crime branch/EOW are required to be plainclothesmen and not in uniform”. “Wearing tags would expose them,” he said.

Dadwal has also said that another guideline, which makes it mandatory for the police officer carrying out an arrest to prepare a memo with the time and date of arrest and get it attested by a witness, is not feasible either.

The other guidelines that the police chief says need to be revised are ones that say somebody close to the arrested or detained person has to be informed as soon as possible after the arrest; in case the arrested person’s relatives or friends live outside the district, the police have to issue a notification within 8 to 12 hours of the arrest; and tell the arrested person that he has the right to inform someone of his arrest.

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