Pay Rs 10 lakh damages to women arrested unlawfully: SC

The Supreme Court on Friday directed the Madhya Pradesh government to pay Rs 10 lakh compensation to a doctor and her septuagenarian mother for wrongly arresting them.  

A bench of Justices Dipak Misra and Shiva Kirti Singh said Dr Rini Johar, now pursuing higher studies in the US, and her mother Gulshan Johar, an advocate practising in Pune for 36 years, were treated with an attitude of insensibility and compelled to face the “humiliation” of arrest by the MP police. 

“Liberty, which is basically the splendor of beauty of life and bliss of growth, cannot be allowed to be frozen in such a contrived winter. That would tantamount to comatosing liberty, which is the strongest pillar of democracy,” the bench said.

 The court directed the state government pay the compensation within three months as the petitioners contended that they were arrested without prior notice from their Pune residence on November 27, 2012. The Johars were forced to travel to Bhopal in an unreserved compartment and sleep on the floor of the train. They also alleged they were forced to pay Rs 5 lakh to a senior police officer in Bhopal.

Dr Rini was released after three weeks and her mother was granted bail after being in custody for 17 days. 

Noting that the dispute was purely of a civil nature, the court said a maladroit effort has been made to give it a criminal colour. 

Even though the state government contended an inquiry has been ordered against the police officers, the apex court said the Constitutional courts, after taking note of the suffering and humiliation, are entitled to grant compensation as that has been regarded as a redeeming feature.