“Now police will also impose tax? Tomorrow your DGP will come and impose some tax and then the Director, Vigilance and others will follow. Ask your DGP to innovate and find out new ways for revenue generation otherwise we will stay it,” remarked the Chief Justice.

The PIL was filed by an Advocate H C Arora against a circular issued by the Police Chief directing police officials all over Punjab to collect ‘facilitation charges’ from the citizens for the services specified therein. For instance, for verifying the character of a citizen, who has applied for some government service, police were asked charge facilitation charges of Rs 200, and similar charges of Rs 200 for character verification for other purposes.

For other related services, which were not specified in the circular, police officials were asked to charge Rs 200 from individuals. Even for issuing of a copy of any document (say an FIR), officers were asked to charge Rs 30, and for giving its certified copy, Rs 100.

While issuing a No Objection Certificate for a stolen/recovered vehicle, the police department would charge a fee of Rs 100; for passport services, like verification, a fee of Rs 100 again. The circular does not state to which State fund the amounts so collected would be credited.  The circular rather states at the beginning that the approval of the Punjab Government for collecting these facilitation charges is being sought, but still it directs the police officials to start collecting these charges. Thus, the petitioner contended that it is an instance of compulsory exaction of taxes/ fees, without any authority of law, and an abuse of the office by the DGP, Punjab. 

'Courts not meant to settle personal scores'

A petition attempting to make the Chief Minister of Haryana an accused in a case drew sharp criticism from the Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court, Justice Vijender Kumar Jain.

The petition was filed by Rakesh Kamboj, an MLA from Karnal. Kamboj, in his petition, had alleged that he was mercilessly beaten up at a public rally held by former Chief Minister Bhajan Lal and his son Kuldeep Singh Bishnoi. Kamboj had alleged that the police officer who beat him, an Additional Superintendent, was the nephew of the present Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and the beatings were given at the instructions of the Chief Minister himself.

The Chief Justice came down heavily on the petitioner for making the Chief Minister a party to the case without having any conclusive evidence against him. "Political battles should not come to the Court. There is no prayer, no averment, no allegations made against the Chief Minister. If you have some genuine problem, then the Court is there but we will not allow anyone to use the Court as a platform for settling their personal scores," the Chief Justice remarked.

Making an attempt to clarify, the counsel for the petitioner argued that he had annexed the CD with the petition, which clearly showed that his client was mercilessly beaten up by the police officials and the Additional Superintendent. "Is the Chief Minister present in the video?" the Chief questioned. Giving a reply in the negative, the counsel submitted that he would amend the petition and remove the Chief Minister as a party from the case.

The counsel further argued that the police beat up the petitioner since he belonged to a dissident group. "Everybody has the right to be a dissident and in fact, everybody is a dissident in this country. But that doesn't mean that you scandalise the whole system of justice for settling your political scores," the Chief Justice remarked.