The Gauhati High Court on Thursday slammed the bulldozer action in Assam and condemned the Superintendent of Police for not following procedure.
A division led by Chief Justice RM Chhaya pulling up the SP and said, “Show me from any criminal jurisprudence that for investigating a crime, the police without any order, can uproot a person and apply a bulldozer.”
The bench further said, “For this you require permission. You may be the SP of any district. Even IG, DIG, or whoever may be the highest authority has to pass through the gamut of law. Only because they head the police department they cannot wreck anybody’s house. Nobody is safe in this country then if that is permitted.”
“Procedure has to be followed. One authority is throwing burden on another authority. Who will represent the SP?? What is your answer? Which law permits to do this? Without prior permission of the Court, you can’t even have a search of somebody’s house,” the Chief Justice stated.
“Tomorrow if somebody forcefully enters the courtroom and sits in the courtroom, even your police authorities will remove these chairs under the guise of investigation? What type of investigation you are doing?” the Chief Justice remarked.
