New Delhi: The Delhi High Court pointed out on Monday that despite an undertaking given by police, there are unmanned barricades in the city and cited an incident where a judge faced problems while attending to a medical emergency in his family.
A bench of justices Mukta Gupta and Anish Dayal directed the police to file a report on this instance and also give data on how many barricades have been put up by each police station in the national capital, how many of those are by manned by Delhi Police staff and how many by resident welfare associations (RWA).
"The status report will also indicate whether night patrolling staff informs the SHO when any unmanned barricade is found, be it of an RWA or of the Delhi Police. The status report with details of all the police stations shall be filed before the next date of hearing under the signature of the Delhi police commissioner," the bench said.
The bench, which was hearing a matter in which the high court had earlier taken suo motu cognisance of a letter written to the prime minister, which was in turn sent to the court for taking action against the placement of unmanned barricades on several roads in south Delhi, listed the matter for further hearing on January 9, 2023.
At the outset, the bench told the Delhi Police's counsel, "I hope you must be following the guidelines (on barricading) diligently." As the Delhi government's standing counsel, Santosh Kumar Tripathi, replied in the affirmative, the bench asked what action was being taken in case of non-compliance of the order. The court said it had earlier expressed apprehensions that in case of a medical emergency, these unmanned barricades block the road, causing inconvenience to people.
"This eventually happened when one of the sitting judges had to take his mother to a hospital in the Greater Kailash area and he could not reach anywhere," the bench said, adding that the incident took place on the intervening night of October 26-27 on the roads leading to the National Heart Institute.
"We are telling you about a specific instance. When we can see it, why can't you see it that still there are unmanned barricades?" it asked the police's counsel. The court said it has nothing to do with the status report of the police when practically, orders are not being complied with. "We had said that even for security purposes, you cannot leave the barricades unmanned. Those are your standing orders and we had only said that you will comply with those," the bench said.