Mumbai: In a significant ruling, the Bombay High Court last Friday ruled that conducting a search without a warrant is a breach of Right to Privacy. Court also fined state government Rs 25,000 payable to the aggrieved petitioner for conducting such illegal search.
The division bench of Justice TV Nalawade and Justice SM Gavhane were hearing a criminal writ petition filed by one Dnyaneshwar Todmal, a driver by profession.
According to Todmal, police had not obtained a search warrant to undertake this operation and ultimately, nothing objectionable was recovered from his house.
He alleged that one of the police officers tried to plant a country-made pistol in his house but the attempt failed. He accordingly, sought Rs 10 lakh in compensation.
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On the other hand, police highlighted the two cases in which Todmal had been booked. Both cases pertained to accidents which had occurred in 2011 and 2015. Police also contended, the search was conducted in “good faith”.
Having considered the contentions, the bench referred to the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), which enables a police officer to search any premises without obtaining a warrant from a magistrate.
The bench, however, opined, in the event such a warrant is not being obtained, police have to specify in writing the purpose for which the search is to be carried out.
The bench noted that the policemen were on different duties but all of them came together at the relevant time for the search operations but without any warrant.
“If such an act is done illegally without following the procedure which is contemplated in Article 21 of the Constitution of India, the consequences follow. In such a case, there cannot be a defence that it was a mistake on the part of the police officers,” Justice Nalawade ruled.
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