Police Officials Appearing Before Court Should Wear Prescribed Uniform: Allahabad High Court
While deprecating the conduct of an Investigating Officer who appeared before the Court wearing casual civil clothes, the Allahabad High Court has asked the DGP to issue guidelines to all officers appearing before the Court that they should wear proper uniform prescribed for their posts.
The High Court was considering a bail application preferred by the applicant, with a prayer to release him on bail in a case registered under Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act during the pendency of the trial.
The Single Bench of Justice Sanjay Kumar Singh held, “In view of the observations made in paragraph no. 12 of this order, the Director General of Police, U.P. Lucknow is directed to look into the matter and issue necessary directions/guidelines to all concerned that whenever they appear before any Court for judicial function in official capacity, they should wear proper uniform prescribed to their posts.”
Advocate Ashwani Kumar Sachan represented the Applicant.
Factual Background
The complainant made a complaint to the Anti Corruption Organization, Mirzapur making allegations that an FIR was registered under Sections 303(2), 317(2) of B.N.S., Section 4/21 Mines and Minerals Act and Section 3 of Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act against unknown person, in which the applicant was the investigating officer, who demanded bribe of Rs 15,000 from the complainant for not revealing his name as an accused in that case but the matter was settled for Rs 5,000. A trap team, along with independent witnesses and the complainant, proceeded to the designated place to execute the trap proceeding. It was he case of the prosecution that the complainant took out the treated bribe notes of Rs 5000 from his pocket and gave them to the applicant. The moment the applicant accepted a bribe, the trap team nabbed him red-handed.
Reasoning
On a perusal of the facts and circumstances, the Bench found that the investigating officer had not conducted a fair investigation, and he did not take pains to verify impartially whether the applicant had ever conducted any investigation in the case. “In view of the above, I find force in the submission of learned counsel for the applicant that applicant never conducted investigation of case crime no. 08 of 2025 and no record was given to him”, it said.
The Bench further noted that pursuant to the order of the Court, Krishna Mohan Rai, Inspector of Anti Anti-Corruption Organization, Mirzapur, who is the investigating officer of this case, appeared before the Court without wearing his proper uniform, as prescribed for his post. He appeared before the Court wearing a colored shirt and pant, whereas he had come to the Court in the capacity of an investigating officer to attend Court proceedings and to assist the State counsel.
On this aspect, the Bench said, “The police officers are expected to wear prescribed uniform while appearing before Courts. The appearance of any police officer wearing casual civil clothes in Court proceeding amounts to a violation of decorum of the Court and undermining the Court proceedings. Learned A.G.A. appearing for the state also apprised this Court that when he interrupted Mr. Rai for not coming in proper uniform, he became angry and his gesture towards him was inappropriate. Such conduct of Mr. Krishna Mohan Rai is deprecated by this Court, and he is warned to be careful in future.”
Considering the facts and circumstances of the case as well as keeping in view the nature of the offence, evidence, complicity of the accused and submissions of the parties as well as the status of the trial, the Bench allowed the bail application.
Cause Title: Shakeel Ahmad v. State of U.P. (Neutral Citation: 2025:AHC:92783
Appearance
Applicant: Advocates Ashwani Kumar Sachan, Gaurav Kumar Srivastava, Saurabh Sachan, Shubham
