- Home
- India
Why not knock out laws declared unlawful?
Kashmir Times. Dated: 9/23/2021 1:23:08 AM
KT NEWS SERVICE
NEW DELHI, Sep 22: Delhi High Court on Wednesday directed the Centre to consider as representation, a public interest litigation (PIL) by a lawyer, seeking removal of such provisions from the statute book that have been declared unlawful and unconstitutional by the Supreme Court or any High Court.
Advocate Anshul Bajaj has also called for making available to the police stations across the country, the relevant amended criminal law books/bare acts and the judgments of the Supreme and respective High Court that would publicize their obligations and responsibilities.
His plea was that the Police continues to book the citizens under the unconstitutional provisions, in the absence of the updated bare acts and the law books.
A Division Bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Amit Bansal directed the Centre to consider and decide the suggestions made in the petition as early as possible and practical.
"There are several Criminal Law sections that were struck down by the Hon'ble Supreme Court, but they are continued to be used by the police officials," the petition said.
It specifically referred to a recent observation by the Supreme Court, expressing shock at the police continuing to register FIRs under Section 66A of the Information Technology Act, which was struck down by it in 2015 in the Shreya Singhal case.
The plea also referred to the Supreme Court declaring recently Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) criminalising "unnatural sex" as unconstitutional in Navtej Singh Johar's case and striking down Section 497 of IPC criminalising "adultery" in Joseph Shine's case, but police continues to slap these sections on people to book them.
It also referred to a recent order of the Bombay High Court to the Vasmatnagar Police station house officer in Aurangabad jurisdiction to buy "latest bare acts" of various criminal laws to let police know about sections of the law that have been struck down.