Hyderabad: The Hyderabad High Court on Wednesday expressed disapproval at the Telangana Police’s action of forcing a person to disclose personal details such as the names of his advocate, his PAN card broker and his concubine, under the pretext of conducting a survey.
Justice A.V. Sesha Sai, while dealing with a petition filed by Chirrabona Badrinath Yadav Bhadri, former corporator, member of the Telugu Desam Party, and President of the Greater Hyderabad wing of the BC Cell, asked what the police intended to do with the personal details being collected.
The judge asked the counsel appearing on behalf of the government to obtain an explanation from the Station House Officer of Marredpally and present it in court on Monday.
The petitioner urged the court to declare the action of the SHO of Marredpally of calling him to the police station and making him fill up the Sakala Nerasthula Samagra Survey form of offenders as illegal and in violation of Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution.
Petitioner was pressurised to give info
V. Raghunath, counsel appearing for the petitioner, told the court that there was no rowdy sheet against the petitioner. Yet, he was summoned by the SHO on Jan 19, 2018, and his thumb impression and photographs were taken without his consent, at the insistence of the Deputy Commissioner of Police of the North Zone.
He said that the police authorities had pressurized the petitioner to disclose the names of his advocate, his pan broker and also his concubine, if he had any. He added that the actions of the police amounted to an infringement of the citizen’s fundamental rights.
The judge informed the counsel appearing for the government that seeking the name of a person’s advocate constituted a violation of the provisions of the Advocates Act.
He said that had the police authorities consulted with law officers before preparing the survey form, then such violations could have been avoided.
