PEOPLE'S UNION FOR CIVIL LIBERTIES & ANR. versus STATE OF MAHARASHTRA & ORS.

Citation: [2014] 12 S.C.R. 54 · Decided: 23-09-2014 · Supreme Court of India · Bench: RAJENDRA MAL LODHA · Disposal: Directions issued
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Judgment (excerpt)

[2014] 12 S.C.R. 54 
A 
PEOPLE'S UNION FOR CIVIL LIBERTIES & ANR. 
B 
v. 
STATE OF MAHARASHTRA & ORS. 
(Criminal Appeal No. 1255 of 1999) 
SEPTEMBER 23, 2014 
[R.M. LODHA, CJI AND 
R.F. ALI NARIMAN, JJ.] 
Police encounters - Investigation - Procedure to be 
C followed in investigating police encounters - Issue as regards 
genuineness or otherwise of nearly 99. encounters between 
the Mumbai police and the alleged criminals resulting in death 
of about 135 persons between 1995 and 1997 - Direction by 
the High Court to the police of the State to follow certain 
D guidelines - SLP thereagainst as a/so other matters - Held: 
It is the constitutional duty of this Court to put in place certain 
guidelines adherence to which would help in bringing justice 
to the perpetrators of the crime who take law in their own hands 
- In a society governed by rule of law, it is imperative that · 
E extra-judicial killings -are properly and independently 
investigated so that justice may be done - Certain guideiines 
issued to be followed in the matters of investigating police 
encounters in the cases of death as the stariCJard procedure 
for thorough, effective and independent investigation - The 
F same would be applicable to grievous injury cases in police 
encounter - Said guidelines to be. treated as law declared u/ 
Art. 141 - Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 - ss.174, 175, 
176- Constitution oflndia, 1950 '-Arts. 21, 141 - Guidelines. 
D.K. Basu v. State of West Bengal 1996 (10) Suppl. 
G 
SCR 284: (1997) 1SCC416; Om Prakash and Ors. v. State 
of Jharkhand through the Secretary, Department of Home,. 
Ranchi-1 and Anr. 2012 (9) SCR 125: (2012) 12 SCC 72; 
Chaitanya Kalbagh and Ors. v. State of UP. and Ors. (1989) 
H 
54 
PEOPLE'S UNION FOR CIVIL LIBERTIES v. STATE 
55 
OF MAHARASHTRA 
2 SCC 314; R.S. Sodhi, Advocate v. State of U.P. and Ors. 
A 
1994 Supp (1) SCC 143; Satyavir Singh Rathi, Assistant 
Commissioner of Police and Ors. v. State through Central 
Bureau of Investigation 2011 (6) SCR 138: (2011) 6 SCC 1; 
Prakash Kadam and Ors. v. Ramprasad Vishwanath Gupta 
and Anr. 2011 (6) SCR 800 : (2011) 6 SCC 189; B.G. 
B 
Verghese v. Union of India and Ors. (2013) 11 SCC 525; 
Rohtash Kumar v. State of Haryana through the Home 
Secretary, Government of Haryana, Civil Secretariat, 
Chandigarh and Ors. (2013) 14 SCC 290 - referred to. 
Case Law Reference: 
c 
1996 (10) Suppl. SCR 284 Referred to 
Para 8 
Referred to 
Para 9· 
2012 (9) SCR 125 
(1989) 2 sec 314 
Referred to 
Para 17 
D 
1994 supp (1) sec 143 
2011 (6) SCR 138 
2011 (6 ) SCR 800 
(2013) 11 sec 525 
(2013) 14 sec 290 
Referred to 
Para 18 
Referred to 
Para 19 
Referred to 
Para 20 
Referred to 
Para 22 
Referred to 
Para 23 
CRIMINAL APPELLATE JURISDICTION: Criminal Appeal 
E 
No. 1255 of 1999. 
F 
From the Judgment & Order dated 22.02.1999-
25.02.1999 of the High Court of Judicature at Bombay in 
Criminal Writ Petition No. 1146 of 1997. 
WITH 
Crl.A.No. 1256 & 1367 of 1999 
W.P. (c) No. 316.of 2008. 
G 
H 
• 
56 
SUPREME COURT REPORTS 
(2014] 12 S.C.R. 
A Contempt Petiton (C) No. 47 of 2011 in W.P. (Civil) No. 316 
of 2008. 
T.C. (C) No. 27 of 2011. 
Manjit Singh, Suryanarayana Singh, AAGs, Shekhar 
B Naphade, B.H. Marlapalle, Gopal Sankaranayanan, 
Vikramaditya, Rohit K. Singh, Somnadri Goud, Sanjana 
Ramachandran (for Parekh & Co.) P.N, Puri, Vishwajit Singh, 
Triloki Nath Razdan, Usha Kejriwal, Aniruddha P. Mayee, Salvin 
Raja, Charudatta, Mahindrakar, Ajit Wagh, Jatinder Kumar 
C Bhatia, Mukesh Verma, Nupur Choudhary, Vivekta Singh (for 
Kamal Mohan Gupta), K. Enatoli Serna, Amit Kumar Singh, 
Balaji Srinivasan, Hemantika Wahi, Puja Singh, V.G. 
Pr(!gasam, S. Aristotle, Prabhu Ramasubramanian, Sapam 
Biswajit Meitei, Khwairakpam Nobin Singh, Pragati Neekhra, 
D K.V. Jagdishvaran, G. Indira, Amit Anand Tiwari, Avinash 
Tripathi, Subramaniam Prasad, Varun Shankar, Anip Sachthey, 
Anil Katiyar, G. Prakash Gopal Singh, Kamini Jaiswal, Sanjay 
Parikh, Tara Chandra Sharma, Arupatham Aruna & Co., 
Shreekant N. Terdal, D.S. Mahra, lrshad Ahmad, Ranjan 
E Mukherjee, D. Bharathi Reddy, Krishnanand Pandeya, Anil 
Shrivastav, Sanjay R. Hegde, D. Mahesh Babu, Corporate Law 
Group, Anitha Shenoy, C.D. Singh, 'P.V. Yogeswaran, Kuldip 
Singh, S. Thananjayan, Balaji Srinivasan, Gunnam 
Venkateswara Rao, Liz Mathew, Sunil Fernandes, Ashok 
F 
Panigrahi, Dr. Nafis A. Siddiqui, Yash Pal Dhingra, B. Balaji, 
Samir Ail Khan, Ashok Kumar Singh, B. Krishna Prasad, 
Kamlendra Mishra, Dr
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