Acquitted cannot be put under surveillance: Court

The Delhi High Court Wednesday said the police cannot keep a person under surveillance after he or she has been acquitted in a criminal case.

Justice S. Muralidhar said police should be extra cautious before labelling a person a history-sheeter and putting his name in the surveillance register as this has "grave adverse" consequences.

“These decisions affecting the life and liberty of citizens must satisfy the constitutional mandate of Article 21 and Article 14 since being labelled a history-sheeter has severe adverse consequences for the person so labelled,” the court said.

The court directed the police to strike off the name of a person who had been under police surveillance for the last five years despite being acquitted in the cases against him.

The court passed the order on a plea by Deepak Solanki seeking a direction to police to quash the history-sheet opened in his name as it was causing hardship because of frequent visits by police to his house.

The court, after going through all records, found there was no evidence against Solanki.

“The preparation of surveillance register (wherein name of proclaimed offender and released convicts is entered) should not be a mechanical exercise...all the relevant materials have to be considered ....after all being labelled as history-sheeter has grave adverse consequences for a person,” the court said.

Last updated on Jul 8^th, 2009 at 20:07 pm IST--IANS