Need To Streamline Working Conditions Of Delhi Police Constables: High Court, Senior Advocate Siddharth Aggarwal Appointed As Amicus Curiae

The Delhi High Court has appointed Senior Advocate Siddharth Aggarwal as amicus curiae in a case highlighting the issues faced by the Constables (Executive) of the Delhi Police who are supposed to work long hours in a day as part of their normal policing and other duties. 

A division bench of Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva and Justice Vikas Mahajan said some deeper examination is required to streamline the working conditions for the Constables (Executive)  as well as the requirements of the police force. 

“Accordingly, we appoint Mr. Siddharth Aggarwal, Senior Advocate assisted by Mr. Gautam Khazanchi, Advocate as Amicus Curiae to assist the Court in highlighting the issues faced and giving suggestions as to how the working conditions of the personnel who have to work long hours can be streamlined and improved,” the court said.

The plea was filed in 2015 challenging section 22 of the Police Act, 1861 and section 24 of the Delhi Police Act, 1978.

Section 21 states that every police officer shall be considered to be always on duty and may at any time be employed in any part of the general police district.

Section 24 states that every police officer, who is not on leave or under suspension, shall be deemed to be always on duty. It also adds that any such officer, at any time, shall be employed on duty if the Commissioner of Police directs so.

The petitioner Babu Lal Mitharwal has argued that under the shield of the statutory provisions, police personnel are assigned duty of over 36 hours at a stretch which is “humanly impossible”.

During the hearing on January 16, Advocate Gyanant Kumar Singh appearing for the petitioner submitted that he shall give certain suggestions to the amicus curiae and prayed for time to file additional documents.

While granting two weeks' time to Singh, the bench also directed the Delhi Police to place on record an affidavit indicating the stage of process of filling up of unfilled vacancies of the constables, in terms of the minutes dated July 10, 2017.

The court also directed the Central Government to file an affidavit indicating the stage of creation of such posts as per the minutes of meeting dated April 18, 2018.

“Let the affidavit be filed within four weeks,” the court said while listing the matter on March 2.

Title: BABU LAL MITHARWAL v. UNION OF INDIA

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