The Bombay High Court has struck down a top-ranking police officer's order externing a 29-year- old person from the limits of Mumbai and adjoining districts of Thane and Raigad, terming it as "excessive".
A Bench of Justices S C Dharmadhikari and Gautam Patel, in a recent judgement, also quashed the order passed by the appellate authority confirming the externment proceedings against Krishna alias Gotia Bajarang Chikne, a resident of Govandi in Northeast Mumbai who faces several criminal cases.
On March 11 this year, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Chembur, issued a show-cause notice to Krishna, proposing his externment from the districts of Greater Mumbai, Mumbai Suburban, Thane and Raigad for two years.
Thereafter, on June 11, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone VI), Mumbai, issued an externment order against Krishna under the Bombay Police Act in terms of the notice. He filed an appeal which was dismissed by the appellate authority on August 28. Krishna then moved the HC against the order.
The petitioner's lawyer, U N Tripathi, argued that the order was clearly excessive as it externed his client from a vast area covering Mumbai, Mumbai Suburban, Thane and Raigad districts.
The Judges noted, "in our view, this submission (that order was excessive) is well-founded."
The Bench noted that the externment order and the show cause notice referred to a number of criminal cases registered against the petitioner. However, all of these are within the local limits of Shivaji Nagar and Deonar Police Stations.
"There is no material whatsoever, in either the externment order or the Appellate Order, justifying the externment of the petitioner from such a vast geographical area," the Judges remarked.
When this point about the order being too harsh was argued before the appellate authority, the latter dealt with it in a most cursory manner, they noted. "We find this to be entirely unsatisfactory, and incorrect in law."
It is ordinarily for the authorities to decide what is the area from which a person should be externed and for how long, the Bench said.
"However, any order of the externment must be non- arbitrary and cannot be excessive. It cannot be more than the situation demands. In this case, the petitioner has been externed for a period of two years, and that too from a vast geographical area.
