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Rahmat Khan @ Rammu Bismillah Khan v. Deputy Commissioner of Police

Criminal Appeal · 2021 INSC 424Decided 25 Aug 2021
Criminal Appeal No. 912 of 2021
Justice Indira Banerjee · Justice V. Ramasubramanian

Background

The appellant, a journalist and social worker, had exposed alleged misappropriation of government grants meant for Madrasas in Amravati district by filing RTI applications and complaints against certain officials and institutions. Soon after, three FIRs were lodged against him by the very officials and school administrators he had complained about, accusing him of threats and extortion. Based on these FIRs, the Deputy Commissioner of Police passed an externment order banning him from Amravati City and District for a year, which the Bombay High Court (Nagpur Bench) upheld.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that externment, a drastic measure restricting a person's fundamental right to move and reside freely, can only be used in exceptional cases to maintain law and order, not as a tool to silence a whistleblower. Examining the record, the Court found the appellant had already been acquitted in one of the three cases, and the other FIRs were filed in close retaliatory proximity to his RTI complaints and inquiries that genuine irregularities were later found in by government authorities themselves. The Court concluded the externment order was "patently arbitrary, mala fide" and an attempt to stifle the appellant's voice rather than a genuine law-and-order measure, and so set it aside.

Lesson Learnt

The police power to extern a person from a city or district is meant only for genuine threats to public safety where witnesses are too scared to testify openly: it cannot be used to punish someone for exposing corruption or filing complaints and RTI applications against officials.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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