HC directs Ahmedabad police chief to publish on website rules framed for maintaining order in public places


PTI | Ahmedabad | Updated: 17-01-2023 21:11 IST | Created: 17-01-2023 21:11 IST
HC directs Ahmedabad police chief to publish on website rules framed for maintaining order in public places
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The Gujarat High Court on Tuesday directed the Ahmedabad police commissioner to publish on the official website all the rules he has framed to preserve order in public places under provisions of the Gujarat Police Act.

Justice Biren Vaishnav passed the order on a petition filed by one Swati Goswami after she was denied information about rules under which permission was not granted to her to hold a peaceful protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act in 2019.

The court directed the police commissioner ''to publish all the rules and orders framed under Section 33 of the Gujarat Police Act on the website in the manner that the same are made available and accessible to the public''.

Sanjay Srivastava is currently the police commissioner of Ahmedabad.

The court observed that as the police commissioner, he was under a legal duty to publish information under the provisions of the Right to Information Act.

The court observed that petitioner is entitled to know the rules framed under section 33 of the Gujarat Police Act (power to make rules or regulation of traffic and for preservation of order in public place, etc.) so as to know the reasons by which she was denied permission.

''In the absence of such knowledge, the petitioner will be handicapped in challenging such permission which will be a direct infringement of his fundamental right and a statutory right to know and access the law of the land which he violated,'' it said in its order.

The court further directed the police commissioner to comply with the requirements of section 4 of the Right to Information Act and publish and make available on the website the texts of all the rules, regulations, instructions, manuals and records held by it or under its control or used by its employees.

The petitioner had sought permission for assembly and peaceful protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act for two hours on a footpath in Ahmedabad on December 29, 2019.

The police informed her that the permission for such assembly and peaceful protest is not allowed and is rejected on the grounds of law and order and traffic situation.

She did hold an assembly in violation of the same order and was detained for a few hours. With a view to know the rules under which the permission was processed, she addressed a letter to the police commissioner asking for a copy of the complete rules framed under the relevant provisions of the Gujarat Police Act.

On March 6, 2020, the petitioner received a reply that her request for information sought was denied.

The refusal of information and the action of the police commissioner in doing so was challenged on the ground of it being ''grossly bad, illegal, violative of principles of natural justice, rule of law and democracy'', it was stated.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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