'Once A Rowdy Need Not Always Be A Rowdy': Kerala High Court Orders Removal Of Man's Name With 8-Year Clean Record From List

The Kerala High Court has recently directed the removal of the name of a person from the rowdy list of Fort Kochi Police Station since he has not been involved in any criminal activity for the past 8 years.Justice P.V. Kunhikrishnan cited that reformation is the main goal of Indian criminal jurisprudence and hence, a person on the path of reformation need not be retained in the rowdy list of the police.The petitioner's name and photograph were added in the Rowdy list of the Fort Kochi Police Station, within the jurisdiction of which he has been living throughout his life. He was involved in 18 criminal cases over a span of 13 years. Out of these 18 cases, he was acquitted in 16 cases. In one case, the chargesheet was quashed by the High Court. In the remaining one case, the petitioner is the 8th accused out of the 15 accused persons, and he is on bail in the case.The petitioner's counsel said that when a person comes with a clean slate of nil crime for about 8 years, his prayer to remove his name from the rowdy history list is to be considered by the police authorities.Currently, no crime is pending against the petitioner in the Fort Kochi Police Station. Moreover, no criminal case has been registered against the petitioner for the last 8 years. Being aggrieved by the fact that his name and photograph were added in the Rowdy list, the petitioner approached the High Court.Meanwhile the State argued that petitioner is involved in cases from 20.06.2004 to 21.06.2017, i.e, for about 13 years. The Public Prosecutor also submitted that the offences alleged in some of the cases includes the offences under Sections 397, 307, 308, 395, 363 & 365 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860, Section 27 of the Arms Act and Sections 55(a) and 8(g) of the Kerala Abkari Act. The Public Prosecutor submitted that the petitioner is now engaged in the real estate business and has been constantly in contact with the suspected persons and people who are engaged in criminal activities. Therefore, he said that the petitioner is under close watch and that's why he is abstaining from criminal activities for now. But considering his previous criminal antecedents, his present evasion cannot be trusted, the state submitted.At the outset, the court in its order pondered If a 'rowdy cap' is given to a person, should that cap continue until his death? Noting that the last case registered against the petitioner was in 2017 and that he has had a clean slate since then, the Court remarked, “once a rowdy need not always be a rowdy...A person is not born as a criminal. The society and all of us create criminals because of certain situations which should be avoided. Therefore, every citizen has a duty to see that the criminals are going on a reformatory pathway.”It also took into consideration the fact that there is only one criminal case pending against the petitioner and that no case is registered in any police station in Ernakulam district. Thus, the Court allowed the writ petition and directed the Police authorities to remove Petitioner's name and photograph from the rowdy list gallery of the Fort Kochi Police Station.Case Title: WP(C) No. 16614 of 2025Case No: XXX v. City Police Commissioner, Kochi and Ors.Citation: 2025 LiveLaw (Ker) 380Counsel for the petitioner: Shabu SreedharanCounsel for the respondents: P. Narayanan, Senior Public Prosecutor, Sajju.S., Senior Government PleaderClick to Read/Download Order

'Once A Rowdy Need Not Always Be A Rowdy': Kerala High Court Orders Removal Of Man's Name With 8-Year Clean Record From List

K. Salma Jennath

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