HARBANS LAL Vs. DISTRICT MAGISTRATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioner, who is a resident of Rohtak, after having migrated from Pakistan in the year 1947 has challenged, the action of the respondents in opening a history sheet and in entering his name in the Surveilance Register No. X under rule 23.4 of the Punjab Police Rules. The case of the petitioner primarily is that despite the fact that he has been prosecuted in as many as seven cases between 1971 and 1993 he has not been convicted even in one case and as such the action of the respondents in putting him in the register was totally unjustified.

(2.) A reply has been filed in response to the petition and the stand taken is that the Superintendent of Police after going through the character of the petitioner had thought it fit to order that his name be put in the Surveillance Register. It has further been submitted that the petitioner was for the first time convicted under the Opium Act and was thereafter prosecuted for an offence under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act. The fact that the petitioner has been convicted in any case has been denied by him by filing rejoinder and it has been clearly stated that he had been finally acquitted by the Appellate Courts in the two prosecutions mentioned above.

(3.) IT appears that an order was for the first time recorded on 5th October, 1969 by Shri Kalyan Rudra, S.P. Rohtak that the name of the petitioner be entered in the Surveillance Register. This order reads as under :-