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UP to get special security force with powers to search and arrest without any warrant

Lucknow | ByPress Trust of India | Posted by Shankhyaneel Sarkar
Sep 14, 2020 07:39 AM IST

The Uttar Pradesh government has ordered the creation of this force after an order from the Allahabad high court. The UPSSF will have the powers to search without any warrant.

The Uttar Pradesh government on Sunday said a special force will be constituted after an order from the Allahabad high court, which had expressed its displeasure over the security at civil courts last December.

Briefing reporters in Lucknow, Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Awanish Awasthi said, “The state government has given orders for the constitution of a special security force. A roadmap in this regard has been sought from the UP DGP. This is a dream project of the UP chief minister. The basis of this force is an order of the high court, which had ordered that there should be a specialised force for civil courts. In all, there will be 9,919 personnel in the force.”

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Awasthi said five battalions of the Uttar Pradesh Special Security Force (UPSSF) will be constituted in the first phase and it will be headed by an ADG-ranked officer.

“Expenses incurred in the first phase will be around Rs 1,747 crore,” Awasthi said.

Later, in a statement, he said the force will provide security to the high court, district courts, administrative offices and buildings, metro rail, airports, banks, financial institutions, educational institutions and industrial units.

This force will have the powers to search without any warrant. Members of this force will also be able to arrest any person without the orders of a magistrate or a warrant, the statement said.

On December 18, 2019, the Allahabad high court had pulled up the Uttar Pradesh government over a shootout at a Bijnor courtroom.

Three assailants had on December 17, 2019, opened fire in the court of the Bijnor chief judicial magistrate, killing a murder accused and injuring three others - two policemen and a court employee.

The Muzaffarnagar court had witnessed a similar incident in 2015, when an armed man entered the courtroom masquerading as a lawyer and shot dead Vicky Tyagi, an alleged gangster.

Chairperson of the Uttar Pradesh Bar Council, Darvesh Kumari Yadav, 36, was shot dead by a colleague in her chamber on the civil court premises in Agra on June 13, 2019.

A two-judge high court bench had said that most incompetent police personnel are being posted at the courts, adding that it will seek the deployment of central forces if the state government is not up to the task.

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