Many feel that innocents may fall prey to “harassment” by the police — free to begin random checks by January 15 — which may apply “draconian laws” currently available in the rule book.

Delhi Police PRO Rajan Bhagat, though, assured that “any identity proof” is sufficient, and said the move is not meant as harassment. “One has to only carry any identity proof with him while being on the road,” Bhagat said. “It could be PAN card, passport, college ID card, bank papers, driving licence or any other photo ID card so that person’s identity could be verified.”

He was, however, quick to note that a person found without any ID proof would have to face “some inconvenience till the time he/she is verified”.

Legal experts, though, call the L-G’s move “impractical, one taken in a hurry”. They envisage that currently only two statutes provide legal back-up for implementing Khanna’s decision — the Delhi Police Act and the Foreigners Act.

“Section 102 (being found in suspicious circumstances between sunset and sunrise) of Delhi Police Act, 1974, can be used for this purpose,” Delhi Bar Council chairman and senior lawyer K K Mannan said.

The section provides for three months’ imprisonment of a person found guilty.

Civil Rights lawyer Prashant Bhushan said the step is a “recall to the days of the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act, 1983”, later scrapped by the Supreme Court as “unconstitutional”. He said police could implement the L-G’s decision under the Foreigners’ Act. “The worst-case scenario will be that persons without ID proof can be detained by the police under the Foreigners Act and declared a foreigner,” Bhushan said.

Delhi High Court Bar Association President and advocate K C Mittal, meanwhile, wonders how a “poor person or a visitor to Delhi can get a photo identity done by January 15.”