By: Dev Kumar PandeyPATNA: The Patna high court has cautioned district magistrates (DMs) and superintendents of police (SPs) against declaring people “antisocial” without strictly following procedural norms, while imposing a total cost of Rs3.9 lakh on the state govt in three cases involving externment orders under Bihar’s crime control law.A division bench of Justices Rajeev Ranjan Prasad and Sunil Dutta Mishra passed the three orders on Sept 11 while quashing externment orders challenged through separate criminal writ petitions. The orders came into the public domain on Sept 12.In a petition filed by Chandan Kumar, an elected panchayati raj representative from Giriyak block in Nalanda district, the court quashed an externment order passed by the Nalanda DM. It directed Kumar to mark his attendance at Silao police station every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.The court imposed a cost of Rs60,000 on the state in the case as compensation to Kumar.In another petition filed by Shashi Kumar alias Fukan and Ajay Singh, both residents of a village under Katrisarai police station area in Nalanda, the court quashed an externment order dated Oct 10, 2025, passed by the Nalanda DM, holding that it amounted to an abuse of the provisions of the Bihar crime control law.The court imposed a cost of Rs2.2 lakh, or Rs 1.1 lakh each, as compensation to the two petitioners.The bench criticised the roles of the Nalanda SP and DM, describing the former as “acting as a post office” and the latter as “acting as a drastic power house” while declaring persons accused of minor offences as “antisocial”.The third case involved Girdhari Yadav, a resident of Katoria police station area in Banka district. The court found fault with an externment order dated Sept 8, 2025, passed by the Banka DM, under which Yadav had been directed to mark his daily attendance at Barahat police station, around 40km from his village.The court quashed the order and imposed a cost of Rs1.1 lakh on the state as compensation to Yadav.The bench directed the state govt to pay the compensation awarded to all four petitioners within a month and recover the amount from the officers found responsible.
