Moral policing is not the work of officers- Supreme Court: Refused to give relief to CISF constable who harassed couple

The Supreme Court has refused to grant relief to a CISF constable who was dismissed from service for allegedly harassing a couple. The bench of Justice Sanjeev Khanna and Justice JK Maheshwari said, the constable was not a police officer. And even if it were, police officers don’t even need to do moral policing.

The bench further said that the job of police officers is only to maintain law and order. Along with this, the bench quashed the High Court’s order to keep the constable on the job. The case is of the year 2001 in Vadodara, Gujarat, which was being heard in the Supreme Court on Tuesday.

The judge said – no girl would like to be stopped at night and asked questions in an indecent manner
Justice Khanna said, this matter is shocking. A couple was harassed at night in the name of moral policing. No girl would want someone to stop her on the way and ask her personal questions and answers in an indecent manner. This is a matter of misconduct.

He further said that the accused belonged to a disciplined force, therefore this misconduct cannot be taken lightly. The Gujarat High Court failed to properly apply the law of judicial review in this case. So we are canceling his order.

Know what was the whole matter…
Constable Santosh Pandey was posted at Greenbelt in Gujarat’s Vadodara in 2001. On the night of the incident at 1 am when a man reached there with his fiancee on a bike, Santosh stopped them. The person told that the girl is his fiancee and both are going to see Garba. Despite this, Santosh stopped him.

At last the man gave his watch, then Santosh let him go. After this the couple complained against Santosh. He was dismissed from service by the CISF after investigation, but got relief from the High Court. The CISF challenged the High Court’s decision in the Supreme Court, which was overturned by the Supreme Court.