VIJAYAWADA: The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Thursday made it clear that it could not stop the government from bringing in legislation to make women protection secretaries working in village and ward secretariats Mahila Police. A public interest ligation filed by A Umamaheswara Rao of Visakhapatnam challenging the two GOs issued by the government with regard to mahila police appointment, training syllabus, job chart and subordinate service rules.
Hearing the petition and a bunch of similar petitions, clubbed together, a division bench, comprising Chief Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra and Justice DVSS Somayajulu, said the government is empowered to bring legislations and if the petitioners have any objections over it, they can challenge the same in the court.
Advocate General S Sriram informed the court that these women protection secretaries will only be called Mahila Police, but will not have any powers like the regular police and they will not discharge any regular police duties.
“A legislation is being brought out to make them integral part of the police department. A draft legislation has been already prepared and the same will be introduced in the form of a bill in the ensuing session of the Assembly,” he explained. When the Advocate General sought four weeks time for submitting a detailed affidavit on the issue, the court responded positively and adjourned the case hearing to September 15.
Earlier, petitioner’s counsels Y Balaji, N Srinivasa Rao said the State government was trying to make these secretaries part of the police department through back door. They said contradicting the claims, Mahila Police were being deployed for bandobast duties. At that time, the bench asked the AG to ensure that Mahila Police are not deployed for bandobast duties.