The Supreme Court today asked theCentre, all states and union territories to furnish details ofexpenses incurred on providing security to various categoriesof persons including people with criminal background and kithand kin of VVIPs.
The court made clear that it did not want to know theexpenses incurred on the security of constitutionalfunctionaries such as President and the Prime Minister andtheir state counterparts.
"The Centre, all State governments and Union Territoriesadministrations shall furnish the details of total expenses inproviding security to public persons and private persons otherthan the Constitutional functionaries such as President, PrimeMinister, Vice President, Lok Sabha Speaker... and theircounterparts in States and Union Territories," a bench ofjustices G S Singhvi and H L Gokhale said.
The order was passed after two-hours of hearing duringwhich senior advocate Harish Salve gave examples of how theprovision of providing security and use of beacon lights werebeing misused and coming in way of right to equality ofcitizens.
The senior advocate cited recent reports that Minister ofstate for Railways Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, surrounded by hissecurity guards and supporters, entered and vandalised theofficial residence of District Magistrate at Murshidabad inWest Bengal.
Citing the affidavit of Tamil Nadu, Salve said the Princeof Arcot is being provided the security because of his oldstatus accorded by the Britishers, who did it to us for"political" reasons.
"Let me point out that the problem has become an endemicand a part of our political culture," he said.
The bench, hearing a PIL filed by a Uttar Pradeshresident on misuse of red beacon, passed a slew of directionsafter going through two notes provided to it by Salve, who hadalso moved the court on the issue, and said, "if streets areunsafe then it has to be unsafe for the Secretary of the Statealso."