The Madras High Court has ruled that police should be objective when opening the history sheets of criminals and maintaining the 'Known Delinquent' list.
Allowing a petition filed by one Madhan Kalidass, an accused in nine criminal cases, Justice S Vaidhyanathan of the Madurai bench said names of individuals should not be maintained in the lists without following the mandatory procedures.
The petitioner, a weightlifter, sought removal of his name from a history sheet maintained by police at Pattukottai in Thanjavur district, saying there was no evidence with regard to continuation of history sheet after January 2013.
Law enforcers should not maintain a list of names in the history sheets and KD lists mechanically as it would adversely affect the individuals concerned and their families, he contended.
Kalidass said he was an income-tax assessee and was running a partnership firm along with his wife. He also had two school-going children.
Though he was an accused in nine criminal cases, he had been acquitted in five of them and four were pending trial. He had not been convicted in any of the cases against him.
He said though it was the duty of police to review the history sheet once in two years, his name continued to a find place in the list without any review.
The judge, however, said, "The order does not preclude the respondent from opening the history sheets in future, in case of offences or commission of offence or the person is going to fall under suspect, pendency of cases or conviction in terms of police standing orders".
