HC quashes criminal proceedings against police officers for using force against lawyers during clash

The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court on Tuesday quashed the criminal proceedings against four police officers for using force against lawyers causing injuries to them following a skirmish in Pratapgarh district court in 2014.

A bench of Justice Dinesh Kumar Singh observed that the police officers were acting in discharge of their official duty to maintain law and order and they were summoned in the absence of required prosecution sanction.

''In absence of sanction, the criminal proceedings against the applicants -- police officers -- would be non-est and void and the same are liable to be quashed,'' it said.

Some lawyers had lodged a criminal complaint before the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Pratapgarh in 2014 alleging that during a dispute between lawyers and PAC personnel on May 21, 2014, police officers along with policemen reached the spot in the court premises without permission of the district judge and assaulted the lawyers.

The CJM had summoned the police officers including the circle officer, an additional superintendent of police, an SHO and the police outpost in-charge of the area on January 12, 2015. Later, the sessions judge affirmed the CJM's order on August 19, 2017.

The police officers challenged these orders before the high court in 2017.

Setting aside the two orders, the bench held, ''It is not in dispute that there was unrest and the atmosphere was highly charged. The applicants -- police officers -- along with other police personnel, went to control the situation and maintain peace and order. The police officials also had suffered injuries to control the situation.'' ''In order to control the situation, if the police officers had used force, and as a result thereof, some lawyers had suffered injuries, it cannot be said that the police officers were not acting in discharge of their official duty,'' the court noted.