The High Court has issued a set of guidelines to protect people, in particular drivers and vehicle owners from being unnecessarily and arbitrarily harassed or prejudiced by police members in the grab of requisition.
The court said the Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner shall have the power to requisition vehicles under the Dhaka Metropolitan Police Ordinance, 1976 only for public purpose and in the public interest and not for personal use or any other purpose.
No vehicle owned by a private individual, company or organization shall be requisitioned without giving prior notice in writing to the owner thereof stating specifically the reason or purpose for such requisition, the guidelines also read.
Under no circumstance, the police shall requisition any vehicle carrying any patient, disabled person or airport-bound passengers who are travelling outside Bangladesh, the court said.
The guidelines were mentioned in the full text of a verdict released on Wednesday while the High Court bench of Justice Naima Haider and Justice Khizir Ahmed Chowdhury delivered the short verdict on July 31 in 2019 after hearing a writ petition.
A rights organization, Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh (HRPB), filed the writ petition as public interest litigation annexing some news cutting for protection of the interest of innumerable number of people who had been regularly suffering due to misuse of power of requisition conferred by DMP Ordinance, 1976.
Lawyer Manzill Murshid appeared in the court on behalf of the petitioner, while Deputy Attorney General Amit Talukder represented the state.
In the guidelines, the court also said, “Requisitioned vehicles must be used for the purpose for which it has been requisitioned and no requisitioned vehicles shall be used by any police officer or their family members for his or her personal need. Any such use of a requisitioned vehicle shall be considered as misconduct.”
“No vehicle shall be requisitioned for more than seven days at a time as laid down in Section 103(A) of the DMP Ordinance, 1976, and the requisition order shall specifically mention the number of days for which the vehicle is being requisitioned.”
“During the period for which the vehicle is requisitioned the fuel costs and other related expenses shall be borne by the requisitioning authority.
The requisitioning authority shall pay such amount of compensation to the owner of the requisitioned vehicle and such amount of daily allowance to the drivers and helpers as may be determined by the committee to be formed under Rule 5 of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (Vehicle Requisition and Compensation) Rules, 2006.
However, the amount of compensation and allowance currently being paid to the owners and drivers of the vehicles appear to be shockingly inadequate and the authority concerned should, therefore, consider revising the rate of compensation and daily allowance keeping in mind the suffering and financial loss of the owners and drivers as well as other socio-economic aspects.
The Police Commissioner shall pay compensation to the owner of the requisitioned vehicle within 15 days from release of the said vehicle from requisition and failure to make such payment shall be considered an irregularity.
If any vehicle gets damaged during the requisitioned period the requisitioning authority shall pay necessary compensation in the manner as laid down and within the time limit as stipulated in Rule 10 of the DMP Rules.”
The High Court directed the DMP Commissioner to issue a circular preferably within a period of 90 days from receipt of the verdict for strict observance of the guidelines formulated by the court in requisitioning vehicles under Section 103(A) of the DMP Ordinance.
The court also directed to circulate the guidelines to the concerned police officers of all the police stations of DMP with instructions to comply with this court order.
