AAP MLA Amanatullah Khan moves HC against ‘Bad Character’ tag, court asks Delhi Police to respond

Justice Sudhir Kumar Jain, while issuing the notice on Khan’s petition, directed the police to file a status report and listed the matter for hearing on July 28. However, the court declined to stay the Delhi Police decision in the interim, saying that the matter requires serious consideration first.

SHO Jamia Nagar on March 28 had prepared a dossier recommending opening of ‘history sheet’ against Khan and declaring him a ‘Bad Character’. The decision was later approved by the ACP, New Friends Colony and DCP, South-East on March 29 and 30, respectively.

Advocate M Sufian Siddiqui, who is representing Khan, argued that he has not been convicted even in a single case and the DCP, while according the approval, was required to record reasons and not act in a mechanical manner. “The entire proceedings have to be kept confidential but they have circulated it in the media. That shows malafide conduct [of the police],” Siddiqui told the court.

While the counsel vehemently sought a stay on the police action, the court said that it was giving a short date and the matter is already sub-judice.

Khan in the petition has also said that no material whatsoever has been included in the dossier to support the allegations against him. Out of the 18 cases which purportedly formed the basis for declaring him as ‘History Sheeter’ and ‘BC’, in 14 cases, Khan has been acquitted, discharged or the cases have been compounded, the court was told.

“Under Rule 23 of the Punjab Police Rules, 1934, it is incumbent upon the Superintendent of Police, i.e. the DCP in this instant case to record definite and special reasons whilst granting approval on the proposal for entering the name of a person in the Surveillance Register, Part-II, especially when there is no conviction recorded in the name of such person,” reads the petition.