CHHATAR SINGH Vs. STATE OF MADHYA BHARAT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE Petitioner moves this Court under Article 226 of the Constitution of India for an order or a writ quashing an order dated 11 -7 -52 passed by the District Magistrate of Morena by which additional police was posted in certain villages of Morena District and cost of the additional police was levied on the residents of those villages, and for an order prohibiting the opponents from enforcing the said order and realising the cost of the additional police from the Petitioner and other residents of those villages.

(2.) THE Petitioner states that he is a Gujar Thakur by caste and a resident of the village Ghuraiya Basaia in Pargana Joura of District Morena; that on 10 -7 -52 the Government issued a proclamation under Section 12(1), Madhya Bharat Police Act Samvat 2007 declaring 5 villages including Ghuraiya Basai of Dist. Morena as a disturbed and dangerous area; and authorised under Sub -section (2) of Section 12 the Commissioner Northern Division to employ adequate police force in addition to the ordinary fixed complement in the above villages, that on 11 -7 -52, the District Magistrate of Morena purporting to act under Section 12 of the Police Act and under the proclamation issued by the Government on the previous day, quartered additional police in the villages and imposed on the residents of those villages the cost of the police, exempting Harijans, Vaishya, Brahmins and other minor communities such as barbers, washermen, gadariyas etc., from liability to bear any portion of the cost of the police. The Petitioner further states that he and other residents of the live villages had applied to the District Magistrate of Morena to withdraw the order dated 11 -7 -52; but that the District Magistrate did not cancel the order. The validity of the proclamation and the order of the District Magistrate is challenged mainly on the grounds:

(3.) AND that Section 12 of the Police Act which permits exemption of any person or class or section of inhabitants from liability to bear any portion of cost of additional police is itself void in view of Articles 14 and 15 of the Constitution.