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The Delhi High Court has reiterated that police from other states cannot be allowed to pick up Delhi residents without informing the Delhi Police first.

A division bench of Justices Siddharth Mridul and Anup Jairam Bhambhani observed that such incidents have increased recently.

This is the second such instance after an earlier similar observation by the Delhi High Court in another case where the Uttar Pradesh Police arrested from Delhi, the father and brother of a man who married an adult woman against her family's wishes. 

The bench said, in this regard, “We cannot permit Telangana Police to whisk away people of Delhi without informing the Delhi Police. What are the safeguards here? To say that law requires any other police force to make entries, but what if they don’t do it?” the Court asked Standing Counsel (Criminal) for Delhi Police, Sanjay Lao.

Previously, a bench of Justice Mukta Gupta had said, reprimanded UP's Shamli Police, that while such instances may be common in UP, "Dilli mein nahi chalega" (It will not be allowed in Delhi).

The present habeas corpus petition was filed by a mother alleging that her son was picked up from Dwarka by the Telangana Police in October last year, and that in violation of CrPC provisions, he was not produced before the concerned magistrate within the mandated period of 24 hours.

He was instead taken to Telangana and produced before a Court in the state, after 72 hours. It was argued that though the man was granted bail in November 2021, there was no information about his whereabouts since.

Lao informed Court that as per information available with him, the man lived in a different police's jurisdiction and was picked up from some other area, and also argued that the petitioner should have approached the Telangana High Court with the petition.

The Bench, however, said that it was concerned about the larger issue, and when the entire procedure is side-tracked, the Delhi Police cannot feign ignorance and remains answerable for certain questions.

"They have to take a stand on following things: Were they informed? If not, can they ask Telangana Police to confirm or deny? And if Telangana Police says yes, then what is the recourse for the Delhi Police and the person concerned? He can’t be unaccounted for,” Justice Bhambhani said.

The Court, therefore, proceeded to direct the Delhi Police to file a status report in the matter detailing whether it was informed about the arrest. If it was not so informed, then the Delhi Police has to tell the Court whether the procedure under law is to request a report from the Telangana Police on these allegations.

The Police has been given 2 weeks to file the report. The case will be heard again on February 9.

Cause Title: Azad Singh Gulia vs Govt of NCT of Delhi and Ors