Citizens have to now pay for police cover

The State government on Thursday informed the Bombay High Court that it had revised its policy on providing police protection to private citizens. Henceforth, it will extend such protection to only those citizens who have a real threat perception, and they too will be expected to pay for it out of their own pockets.

Appearing for the state, Advocate General Ashutosh Kumbhakoni said that citizens cannot make a claim to receiving police protection as a matter of “right.” “They must also not think that police protection is a service provided by the state that they can avail of simply by paying a service charge,” he said.

As per the new police that Kumbhakoni submitted in the court, all private citizens, including celebrities, will henceforth receive police protection only if these conditions are met.

And all those private persons, whose applications for such protection has been approved by the state authorities, will have to pay the fees for the same in advance, or deposit a bank guarantee in lieu of the same.

“The revised fees for such protection will be computed on a new formula that will take into account several considerations, including the salaries of the police personnel deployed as bodyguards,” Kumbhakoni said.

“Such fees however, will not exceed 15 percent of the total monthly income of the person who receives police protection,” he said. Also, those persons whose monthly income is less than 50,000 rupees per month, will not need to pay any fees if their applications for police protection are approved.

Politicians who get bodyguards to accompany them while on official duty, and government and semi-government staff, who get police protection to help discharge public duties, however, will not have to pay any fees for such protection.

The revisions in the policy were made by the state government in compliance with a previous order of the High Court directing the state to streamline its process of providing police protection to politicians as well as private persons.

Earlier this week, a bench of Chief Justice Manjulla Chellur and Justice MS Sonak had directed the state to recover dues from all such private persons who had been enjoying police protection for years but had failed to pay for it.

The bench had also directed the state to ensure periodic review of the status of each applicant to ensure one was not given police protection indefinitely irrespective of any threat perception to one’s life. The bench was hearing a Public Interest Litigation filed by a lawyer seeking directions to the state police to recover dues from the VIPs, including politicians, and film actors, who have been provided security cover, but have not paid the charges for the same. Kumbhakoni also said that while the state will ensure that all pending dues for police protection are recovered, henceforth, a state level committee headed by the DGP will review the status of all such persons every six months. He said that the state had also amended its decision to not grant any protection to persons with a criminal record. “Such applications will be scrutinised on a case to case basis and the deserving applicants will be given protection,” he said.