Who will represent Delhi Police crops up in High Court

A day after the Apex Court said that the elected government should have some powers otherwise it cannot function, the issue whether Delhi Police would be represented by the Centre or the AAP government in criminal cases cropped up in the Delhi high court on Thursday.

Opposing the appearance of private lawyers in a matter involving officials of Delhi Police, AAP government’s senior standing counsel Rahul Mehra said the High Court has already settled that appointment of special prosecutors are in “our domain”.

Mehra said if the policemen were being represented in their personal capacity then he has no objection but if they were being represented by private lawyers in their official capacity then first he should have been taken into confidence.

The issue came to the fore during the hearing of a plea by Syed Mohammed Imran, son-in-law of former Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, seeking contempt action against his estranged wife and some cops alleging that he was arrested “casually” in a criminal case in contravention of the Apex Court guidelines.

“I object to the presence of the other lawyers. I want to know whether they are before the court in the personal capacity of the officer, against whom contempt action has been sought, or in official capacity of the officer.

“Factually Delhi Police have to be represented by me and every file in this regard has to go from my office. I should be aware of as to who is representing the case. There is an office allotted to me, and sanctity of that office has to be maintained,” Mehra argued before Justice Manmohan.

To this, Additional Solicitor General Sanjay Jain responded that he has the high regard for the Delhi government and he was appearing in the matter as an arguing counsel and was being briefed by another lawyer who was representing one of the cops, the investigating officer, in a personal capacity.

Taking note of Mehra’s grievance, the court said that Mehra should be informed about who will represent the policemen in the matter and under what capacity.