Lucknow, September 15
The Uttar Pradesh government notified on Tuesday the creation of a special force empowered to search any premises or arrest any person without warrant or court order, an official said.
The move drew a strong backlash from Congress, with his state unit chief Ajay Kumar Lallu equating it with the Rowlatt Act of 1919, or Black Law, and saying the party will explore legal options to challenge it.
The new force, dubbed the UP Special Security Force, will take care of the security of metropolitan railroads, courts, airports, banks and other vital facilities in the state.
The UP SSF will work on the lines of the Central Industrial Security Force, Additional Chief Secretary (Interior) Awanish Awasthi said in a statement.
The force has been created under the provisions of the Uttar Pradesh Vishesh Surakash Bal Adhiniyam (Uttar Pradesh Special Security Force Act), 2020, Awasthi said, adding that the Force has been vested with powers similar to those of the CISF.
“According to the Law, any member of the Force may arrest a person without a judicial order or order from a magistrate if there is an attack on members of the Force, the threat, the use of criminal force or obstruction in the performance of duty. , ”Said the additional chief secretary.
“If a crime is committed, members of the Force can search any suspect without a search warrant without giving them the opportunity to escape or hide the evidence. By being convinced that the person has committed the crime, the person can be arrested, ”said Awasthi, adding that the Force will also be empowered to search the premises of any suspect without any search warrant.
Briefing reporters on Sunday, Awasthi said: “The state government has issued orders for the constitution of a special security force. A roadmap in this regard has been requested from the UP DGP ”.
“This is a dream project of the Prime Minister of the UP. The basis of this force is an order of the High Court, which had ordered the creation of a specialized force for the civil courts. In total, there will be 9,919 troops in the Force ”, he had said.
Later, 1,913 additional positions will be created for this, he had said.
Awasthi said that five battalions would be formed in the first phase and that it would be led by an ADG rank officer.
“The expenses incurred in the first phase will be around 1,747 million rupees,” Awasthi said.
The force was constituted by order of the Allahabad High Court, which had expressed its displeasure last December at the lack of security in the civil courts, Awasthi said.
On December 18, 2019, the Allahabad High Court had arrested the Uttar Pradesh government for a shooting in a Bijnor court.
Three assailants had opened fire in the Bijnor Chief Judge’s Court on December 17, 2019, killing one accused of murder and wounding three others: two policemen and a court employee.
The Muzaffarnagar court had witnessed a similar incident in 2015, when a gunman entered the courtroom disguised as a lawyer and shot dead Vicky Tyagi, a suspected gangster.
In another incident, the chairman of the Uttar Pradesh Bar Council, Darvesh Kumari Yadav, 36, was shot dead by a colleague in his chamber at the civil court premises in Agra on June 13, 2019.
A bench of two HC judges had said that most of the incompetent police personnel are being assigned to the courts, adding that they will seek the deployment of central forces if the state government is not up to the task.
Meanwhile, in reaction to the UP SSF constitution, the head of the state Congress Lallu told PTI: “It’s like the Rowlatt Act. It is an unconstitutional, illegal and black law. There will be no ‘daleel’ (arguments), nor ‘vakeel’ (defender) against this new force. “
“The Government wants to stifle the voices of democratic forces, including those of politicians, social activists and the media through this black law. We will protest against this in the streets and also within the assembly, ”he said.
When asked if Congress would move the court to challenge this law, Lallu said: “We will also explore legal options.”
The Law of Anarchic and Revolutionary Crimes of 1919, popularly known as Rowlatt Law or Black Law, was a law of the legislative council passed by the Imperial Legislative Council in Delhi on March 18, 1919.
The law had indefinitely extended the emergency measures of indefinite pre-trial detention, imprisonment without trial, and judicial review promulgated in the Indian Defense Act of 1915 during World War I.
It was the Rowlatt Law that brought Gandhi into the mainstream of the Indian struggle for independence and ushered in the Gandhi Era of Indian politics. – PTI
