All police officers have to wear uniform in court: Bombay High Court

The Bombay High Court on Wednesday declared that all police officers have to wear uniform while being present in court. .During the course of arguments in a case, Advocate Subhash Jha raised an issue before a Division Bench of Justices AS Gadkari and PD Naik about police officers not following court decorum. “I want to raise the issue of police officers not following the court decorum and appearing before court in all sorts of cloths like jeans,” he claimed. .Justice Gadkari quipped that a public prosecutor is present to look after such things, like the clothes of officers present. At this point, additional public prosecutor Sangeeta Shinde informed the Court that the officer whom Jha was referring to worked with the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai Police and wearing uniform was not mandatory for them. .Justice Gadkari then stated that all police officers were expected to wear uniform in court. In fact, the judge stated that he had fined an officer for not doing so. However, since Shinde pointed out that the officer was not expected to be in uniform, the judge did not impose any fine in the present case..Incidentally, the police officer whose attire was being discussed was wearing a salwar-kameez without a dupatta. .When contacted, Advocate Jha said that officers coming to court in all sorts of clothes undermines the authority of the court. “The lady policewoman was facing contempt proceedings and was not in uniform. Moreover, generally I see policemen coming to court in official duty in all sort of clothes which seriously undermines the authority of our courts and hence objected,” Jha said.