Police Cannot Parade Arrested Persons or Post Their Photos Online; It Is Punishment Without Law: Rajasthan High Court

The petitioners, villagers of Basanpeer Juni in Jaisalmer district, were arrested under Sections 126 and 170 of the BNSS after a protest during an Executive Magistrate's proceedings in July 2025 (para 2). They alleged that the police made them sit in undignified conditions, photographed and filmed them, and posted the images on official social media; several of them were women (paras 2, 6). By an interim order of 20.01.2026 the Court directed removal of the images, and of those of an advocate arrested in Jodhpur (para 6). The SP denied any humiliation but removed the content, and the ADGP (Crime) and the Jodhpur Commissioner issued circulars barring such publicity (paras 7-10).

Neither the Constitution nor any statute authorises the police to publicise or parade arrested persons; doing so is a manifest abuse of authority (para 12). The police, as part of the executive, cannot usurp the judiciary's role by declaring guilt in public, and such conduct before trial inverts the rule that punishment follows conviction (para 13). The Court described "media trial by police" as a State-engineered narrative, relying on Rajendran Chingaravelu (para 14). Digital images leave permanent stigma even after acquittal; invoking the Ship of Theseus, the Court said a person so degraded "does not remain the same thereafter" (para 15). Articles 19, 20(3) and 21, the Law Commission's 200th Report, and Rajendra Jawanmal Gandhi, Umesh Kumar, Mehmood Nayyar Azam, D.K. Basu and Sunil Batra protect the dignity and reputation of accused persons (para 16). Public condemnation is an extra-legal penalty outside the punishments the law prescribes, even in the gravest cases (para 17).