Elected representatives cannot assume the role of the police, the administration or the courts, the Supreme Court has asserted, issuing a stern warning that the authority conferred by an electoral mandate cannot be used to intimidate citizens, enforce personal will or supplant the institutions of the state.
The bench noted that the alleged assault in the present case had created such fear among the victim doctors that they tendered their resignations, while the incident also prompted concerns about the ability of medical professionals to work without insecurity. The court further referred to a subsequent incident in Palghar , Maharashtra, in which doctors and hospital staff were allegedly assaulted by political functionaries.
The court said that allegations of elected representatives using force, intimidation or other extra-legal means to deal with citizens and public functionaries raised a larger concern for constitutional democracy. it said the episode reinforced concerns about the insecurity prevailing among medical professionals While noting that the incident constituted an independent cause of action.
Mhatre is accused of leading an assault on three doctors, including a woman doctor, at Shastri Nagar Municipal Hospital in Dombivli, Thane, on July 6, following a dispute over the shifting of a pregnant woman in labour. The court directed Mhatre and the three other accused to surrender before the trial court by October 5. The observations came in a case involving Shiv Sena corporator Ramesh Sukrya Mhatre, whose bail the court cancelled while hearing an appeal by the Maharashtra government . The court added that the authority derived from an electoral mandate could never become a substitute for the authority of law and that public office carried a corresponding obligation to respect the institutions through which citizens’ grievances were to be addressed.
