BHC (Bombay High Court) acts on PIL

view BHC Order

The BHC (Chief Justice's court) has slammed the State for filing an 'inadequate and unsatisfactory' affidavit. It says " We hardly find any reason why in such a serious matter of great public importance the State should not file detailed affidavit. State was expected to come out with certain definite and constructive steps which it proposed to take together with the steps it has already taken to ensure the security of the people of Mumbai. All teh affidavit says is that certain steps are proposed to be taken in future but there is no reference as to what has been made, as to what has been done on the fateful day till today." (page 6 & 7)

The BHC judgement also expresses surprise at the little or no action taken to constitute a State Security Council ( as promised in the Chief Minister's open letter to Mumbai/Maharashtra). (page 10 & 11)

Furthermore the BHC has asked for the State and Center to file complete and detailed affidavits within 4 weeks. And has aportioned another 2 weeks for rejoinders(page 8)

The Bombay High Court has constituted a Citizen Committee comprising

• Justice B.N Sri Krishna – Chairman
• Mr. Vijay Mukhi
• Chief Secretary Commerce, State of Maharashtra
• Secretary Finance Department, State of Maharashtra
• Secretary Home Department, State of Maharashtra
• Director General of Police, State of Maharashtra
• Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime)
• State of Maharashtra President
• Bombay Bar Association President
• Advocates Association of Western India
• Mr. Krishna Kumar, Indian Hotels Company
• Mr. Ramesh Mashelkar, Former Director General, CSIR
• Mr. Arvind Inamdar, Former Director General of Police
• Regional Director, State Forensic Laboratory
• Mr. Raghuraman of Mahindra SSG

A Government Advocate to be nominated by Advocate General The committee is to meet on Dec 26 in Mantralaya at 11 am. The committee will consider all the suggestions made in the various PILs and make it's reccomendations to the Government. Governement should take appropriate decisions regarding the reccomendations within 2 weeks of having recieved them.

The committee, meanwhile has to submit a report before the next hearing (in February).

It is noteworthy that the BHC has put in place a time bound mechanism of ensuring that upgradation of city security, modernisation of police and other such measures are considered seriously and the results are reported to court. This itself is a big step in the direction towards correcting the systemic lapses that exposed Mumbai on 26/11.

Mumbai has more than 16 million residents and just 42,000 policemen and policewomen. These brave men and women put their lives on the line everyday. They help keep the wheels of India's financial capital turning. But - WHAT HAVE WE DONE TO HELP THE MUMBAI POLICE?

They need better equipment, better intelligence coordination, enhanced resources, an elite force that can deal promptly with terrorist attacks. The solutions are all known, discussed and debated, but not done. Now is the time to convert words into action. It's time to seek the intervention of the last standing pillar of democracy - the Judiciary, to ensure that Mumbai's Police force is fully equipped. This PIL is an effort to ensure that the State delivers on all previous promises as well as formulates and implements new plans to modernise the Mumbai Police within a well laid out time frame. And that the implementation of these plans is supervised by a Citizens Committee.