Rajasthan High Court: In a matter where regarding misbehavior and manhandling of a lawyer by the State House Officer (‘SHO’) came up, the Division Bench of Sanjeev Prakash Sharma, CJ., and Baljinder Singh Sandhu, J., took cognizance of it and held that the incident is most unfortunate and that the lawyer community has been agitated by it.
The Court directed soft skill training of the police officials and stated that while the police have to sometime act strongly with the accused, the same cannot be expected from them when they are dealing with the lawyers.
Background
In the present case, news item was published in the daily newspaper ‘Dainik Bhaskar’ relating to manhandling and misbehavior by the SHO. It was stated that a lawyer with his wife who is also a lawyer had gone to the Police Station along with rape victim who was the prosecutrix and one person in civil clothes not wearing the uniform was recording the statement of the prosecutrix without following the procedure.
The lawyer went to complain to the SHO, who instead of redressing the complaint, misbehaved and manhandled the lawyer and shoved him into a room. When the lawyer demanded that the victim should not be called several times to the police station, it angered the SHO and he restrained the lawyer in his room. His wife insisted that they have a right to demand proper recording of statements and also requested not to manhandle her husband. A video of the incident was shown to the Court.
Analysis and Decision
Taking cognizance of the incident, the Court called upon the Commissioner of Police who assured that an inquiry would be initiated against the officials concerned who were responsible for misbehaving with the lawyers representing a cause of victim.
The Court noted that the video of the said incident had gone viral, which clearly showed that the SHO misbehaved and needed to be trained in soft skills and stated that “The incident is most unfortunate, and the lawyer community has been agitated by such incident.
The Court opined that advocates and police personnel are two limbs of the same justice delivery system and are to act alongside each other, and there should be mutual respect and mutual cooperation between the two. While the police is required to work in difficult situations and has to sometime act strongly with the accused, the same cannot be expected from them when they are dealing with the lawyers. Similarly, lawyers are also expected to deal with the police personnel in a soft manner and with a polite attitude.
The Court stated that the present incident reflected a lack of coordination between the two wings of administration of justice. The police officials are required to be given thorough soft skill training which would be provided not only to the officials at the Commissionerate but to the other officials also. Further, the Court directed the Commissionerate to furnish the report about what further departmental action had been taken against the officials concerned, including the SHO and other constables and staff.
The Court noted that despite earlier observations made in a somewhat similar incident, the Coordination Committee had not been actively performing its work. Thus, the Court directed that the Coordination Committee at each district shall be formed afresh, and details of the same shall be communicated back.
[Rajasthan High Court Advocates’ Association v. State of Rajasthan, D.B. Civil Writ Petition No. 23646 of 2025, decided on 2-12-2025]
Advocates who appeared in this case:
For the Petitioner: Sachin Acharya Sr. Adv., Sunil Purohit, Anand Purohit, Sr Adv, Digvijay Singh Jasol, Sushil Bishnoi, Ratna Ram Tholiya, Shubham Modi, Manish Tak, Anita Gehlot, Deepika Soni, Rishi Soni, Rajesh Parihar, KL Bishnoi, Deepika Purohit, Deendayal Purohit and Rakesh Kalla, Advocates
For the Respondent: Mahaveer Bishnoi, AAG, Gaurav Bishnoi, Rajesh Panwar, Sr. Adv. & AAG, Ayush Gehlot, Monal Chug Mr. BL Bhati, AAG, Deepak Chandak, Praveen Khandelwal, AAG, Arpit Samaria, SS Rathore, AAG, IR Choudhary, AAG, Ravindra Jala, AAAG and SS Ladrecha, AAG