‘Loyal to govt, not Constitution’: Allahabad HC tears into UP police, flags ‘encounter killings, selective crackdowns’

THe Allahabad heights margaret court has issued a tart reproval to the Uttar Pradesh constabulary and bureaucracy, flagging “targeted” actions and encounter killings. The high court, during a hearing, accused the police of acting “to satisfy their political superiors” rather than being loyal to the Constitution.“The vertical loyalty of officers runs not toward the Constitution but toward the ruling dispensation. Field officers, acutely conscious of the transfer-posting economy, calibrate their conduct to satisfy political superiors,” Justice Vinod Diwakar said in his 31-page judgement in 'Rajendra Tyagi and 2 Others vs State of UP and another'.The bench made these observations while quashing a criminal case against three members of a family in Ghaziabad charged under the UP Gangsters Act.Flagging misuse of the act, the court in its findings stated that the stringent law had been invoked over a commercial dispute.Also Read | Allahabad HC grants bail to rape-murder accused, slams poor forensic infraThe bench highlighted police overreach in the arrest of 35-year-old Lalita Tyagi, a homemaker, who the court said had been arrested the very next day after the FIR was lodged without there being any incriminating evidence against her.‘Encounter killings, selective crackdowns, targeted use of Act’While the particular instance was that of a family being portrayed as an organised gang without any evidence of intimidation or violence, the court made sweeping observations about the entire policing system of the state.It flagged encounter killings and selective crackdowns, saying the state was still driven by the “feudal mindset” of politicians and bureaucrats. “Encounter killings, selective crackdowns, and targeted use of the Gangsters Act against inconvenient individuals have periodically attracted judicial notice,” the bench stated.“Uttar Pradesh, by virtue of its demographic magnitude and political significance, has historically been a crucible of political hegemony, driven by the feudal mindset of politicians and bureaucrats,” Justice Diwakar said in the judgement.The court further highlighted that officers seen as “loyalists” receive favourable postings in the state, while those acting independently are punished.“Officers perceived as loyalists are rewarded with preferred postings- urban Commissionerates, lucrative districts- while those demonstrating independence are transferred punitively to inconsequential assignments,” the court said, adding that this is a “well-known fact.”Also Read | Time has come to make top bureaucrats criminally liable: Allahabad HC to UP govt‘Rule of law treated as operational inconvenience'The court stated that a “considerable section” of officers in the state have resorted to looking at the rule of law not as “constitutional obligation but as an operational inconvenience.”The bench backing its judgement highlighted arrests without following the due process of law, FIRs being registered or suppressed “with ulterior motives”, and provisions pertaining to preventive detentions being invoked “arbitrarily.”“The procedural safeguards under the Code of Criminal Procedure, and now the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, are routinely bypassed. Judicial orders are complied with in form but defeated in substance,” the court said in a sharp rebuke. Justice Diwakar expressed “deep concern” regarding the role of the Home Secretary, who is the senior-most bureaucratic authority in the state's law enforcement system and the administrative head of the home department.“Rather than functioning as an independent constitutional authority charged with implementing the government's vision, policies, and programmes through impartial executive action. Certain officers who rose to the post of Home Secretary have, in practice, served as conduits for self-serving interests,” the bench stated.