A division bench of Justices A S Oka and S S Jadhav was hearing a petition filed by Kadar Solanky, a lawyer and secretary with Bhiwandi Municipal Corporation, seeking action against four policemen from Bhiwandi for detaining him for hours after he was caught riding a bike without license.
According to Solanky, he had told the police when he was caught during nakabandi that he had forgotten his license at home and was ready to pay the fine immediately.
"However, the police personnel verbally abused him and forcibly took him to Bhiwandi police station where he was detained for over six hours. He was released later after he paid a fine of Rs 3000," Solanky's advocate Ganesh Gole said.
The court asked additional public prosecutor P Konde Deshmukh as to which law allowed police to forcibly take a person to police station for a traffic offence.
"Can you force a citizen to go to the police station and detain him for so long for not carrying his driving license?" Justice Oka queried.
Directing the police to file an affidavit explaining their stand, the court said, "This seems like a case of illegal detention. We will consider what action needs to be taken after perusing the affidavit."
The matter has been kept for hearing on October 18.
