New Delhi, Nov 3 The Delhi Police has told the Supreme Court that a habeas corpus petition filed by TMC MP and lawyer Menaka Guruswamy over alleged removal of former West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee from the protest site has become infructuous as no one was arrested or detained during the October 10 protests here.
In a counter affidavit filed by Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Surender Kumar before a bench headed by Chief Justice Surya Kant, the Delhi Police said that the petition, which is essentially one seeking a writ of habeas corpus, has been “duly answered” and “no longer survives and deserves to be dismissed”.
Habeas corpus is a fundamental constitutional remedy and legal prerogative writ used to protect individual liberty against unlawful detention or restraint.
The police said that the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) had called for a protest on October 10 without obtaining permission from the competent authority, and that the proposed demonstration had the potential to seriously affect public order.
According to the affidavit, an order under Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita was in force at the time, and that any assembly or gathering in violation of the order constituted an unlawful assembly.
The order, annexed with the affidavit, issued by the Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), Chanakyapuri on August 19, prohibited public meetings, assemblies of five or more persons, carrying of banners and placards, shouting of slogans, speeches, processions and demonstrations across the jurisdiction of the Chanakyapuri and South Avenue police stations.
The order was effective from August 20 for 60 days, up to October 18, and cited the presence of Rashtrapati Bhavan, the Prime Minister’s residence, foreign embassies and other vital installations in the area.
The affidavit further said that the police invoked Section 65 (persons bound to comply with the reasonable directions of a police officer) of the Delhi Police Act, which allows an officer to remove those who resist or refuse and either produce them before a metropolitan magistrate or, in trivial cases, release them once the occasion necessitating removal has ceased.
According to the affidavit, Mamata Banerjee, Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Derek O’Brien, party’s Rajya Sabha MP Dola Sen, Lok Sabha MP Pratima Mondal and others were found acting in breach of the BNSS Section 163 directions at South Avenue.
It said they were informed of the directions by police officers.
“As they failed to comply with the said directions, they were removed from South Avenue at approximately 2 pm and taken to Dwarka North Police Station, where they were requested to sit in the chamber of the Station House Officer (SHO),” the affidavit said.
It said that “the dignity and respect befitting the offices they held were duly maintained”, and that tea, coffee and food were offered.
According to the affidavit, Banerjee, Sen and Mondal were informed at 5.50 pm that they were at liberty to leave as the circumstances necessitating their removal from South Avenue had ceased.
It said, “However, the aforesaid three persons chose to leave along with three other persons, namely, Derek O’Brien, Samirul Islam and Mohammed Nadimul Haque, who were permitted to leave at 6:05 pm. All of them left in their respective cars, which were waiting outside the police station.”
Underlining that the plea was essentially a petition seeking issuance of a writ of habeas corpus, the affidavit said that after the plea had been filed, “petitioners sought to enlarge the scope of the writ by incorporating various additional prayers for relief which cannot be agitated in the present proceedings”.
“In the aforesaid circumstances, the habeas corpus petition no longer survives and deserves to be dismissed,” it added.
(PTI News)
