“Horrible,” according to the SC, Gujarati police officers who flogged five people need to be imprisoned

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court censured Gujarat police on Tuesday for publicly whipping five Muslim men in the Kheda district in 2022 after they had tied them to a pole. The court called the behavior “unacceptable” and demanded to know where the police had the right to carry out such a brutal act.

“What kind of atrocities are these?” the court inquired during the hearing of a petition by four police officers who had been found guilty of contempt and given a 14-day prison term by the Gujarat High Court. The four ought to be imprisoned, the speaker said, “then you want this court to intervene.”
Law enforcers cannot use ignorance of the law as a defense: SC
Proceed and enjoy being in charge. Your own officers will be hosting you as guests. Judge Gavai informed the Gujarat police that they would handle you differently.
Senior advocate Siddharth Dave, however, argued that the police were already being prosecuted criminally and subject to departmental proceedings for their wrongdoings, and he questioned how the High Court could proceed against the cops under contempt jurisdiction when there was no deliberate disregard for the directives of the Supreme Court in the D K Basu case.
According to Dave, in order to prove contempt, there had to be willful disregard for the court’s ruling, and they also needed to be aware of the ruling. However, the bench ruled that law enforcement authorities could not use ignorance of the law as a defense and that all police officers needed to be familiar with the laws established in the D K Basu case.
Nonetheless, the bench decided to hear their argument and prolonged the Gujarat High Court’s order to suspend the conviction and sentencing.
In October of last year, the Gujarat High Court found the police guilty of contempt of court and sentenced them to 14 days in jail along with a fine of Rs 2,000. Five men were assaulted by the prisoners of Kheda’s Matar police station, consisting of police inspector A V Parmar, PSI D B Kumawat, head constable K L Dabhi, and constable Raju Dabhi. The men were accused of hurling stones at a crowd during Navratra festivities in Undhela hamlet.
The HC had declared the police officers’ actions to be a crime against humanity and held them guilty. “The fact that the complainants were publicly flogged and tied to a pole suggests that the issue is not exclusive to Undhela village but has extended farther,” the court had said.
Anarchy will result if public servants break the law because it will foster disrespect for the law, promote lawlessness, and give rise to the yearning in every man to become his own lawmaker. As HC had noted, “No civilized nation can allow such a thing to happen.”