Ranike had moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court seeking “an adequate number of security personnel” and to restore the security cover that had been provided to him since 1997 in view of a threat to his life. ( (Express photo by RANA SIMRANJIT SINGH) Replying to a petition filed by former minister Gulzar Singh Ranike, the Punjab government has submitted in the high court that spending taxpayer money for deploying police for the security of individuals is not a function of the government and that such personal protection “was always meant to be an exception and not the rule”.
Ranike had moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court seeking “an adequate number of security personnel” and to restore the security cover that had been provided to him since 1997 in view of a threat to his life.
Submitting the government’s reply before Justice Anil Kshetarpal, Varinder Paul Singh, AIG (security), stated on Friday that norms for providing protection had been laid down in the security policy notified in 2013 in pursuance of Supreme Court directions.
“Police officers are recruited, trained and maintained at a huge cost borne by the taxpayer and are therefore meant to be deployed for the protection of the community. Providing police officers to individuals for their protection at the cost of the taxpayer is not the function of the state or the government,” the government submitted, adding that personal protection using taxpayer money was “always meant to be an exception, and not the rule”.
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The state government also referred to the Ministry of Home Affairs’ Yellow Book, which stated that “the tendency to continue with security arrangements even in the absence of real threat should be avoided”.
The government’s reply further stated that personal security cover might be provided either on the basis of the position held by a person or the threat perception. “However, now that the term of the previous Assembly has ended, a member of the previous Assembly would no longer be entitled to any positional security cover,” it said.
Ranike, whose term as an MLA for the Gharinda constituency ended in 2017, is president of the scheduled caste wing of the SAD-B. He was earlier provided with a personal security officer. As per the 2013 policy, the security detail for an ex-MLA comprises one or two personal security officers for 3-5 years on the basis of the threat perception, the government submitted.
Since Ranike is not an elected representative now, his case for personal protection can be decided only on the basis of the threat perception, the government submitted, adding that there was no specific threat to him.
The government further submitted that the security cover for former MLAs and private individuals was withdrawn after a March 29 meeting of the security review committee, which discussed “latest threat inputs shared by the intelligence wing and counter-intelligence wings”.
The matter is now scheduled for hearing on June 11.
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