Police asked to let undertrials wear footwear in HC premises

Mumbai, Jan 18 (PTI) The Bombay High Court today directedpolice officials deployed outside trial court to stop thepractise of asking undertrial accused to remove their footwearoutside the court.

Shaikh Naeem, an accused in the Aurangabad arms haulcase, had sent a letter to the High Court challenging the banon footwear for undertrials in the special MCOCA court.

The court had converted the letter into a petition. Adivision bench of Justice A M Khanwilkar and A R Joshi askedthe concerned authorities to amend Rule under the BombayPolice Act which gives powers to security personnel to mandateremoval of footwear of undertrials before entering the court.

Raja Thakare, counsel for ATS, which is probing the armshaul case, told the court that earlier there have beeninstances where accused have hurled slippers at judges in thetrial court. Hence as a safety measure, it was decided not toallow accused to wear footwear inside the courts.

Justice Khanwilkar however remarked, "Just because therehave been few instances, it does not mean that you (police)make it a rule." PTI SPVKV