The Allahabad High Court has directed the Uttar Pradesh government to take appropriate action and provide monetary compensation to two persons who were illegally detained in jail under CrPC provisions 151, 107 and 116 in Varanasi district even after they had furnished personal bonds.

In an order by Justices Surya Prakash Kesarwani and Shamim Ahmed on February 2, the court observed that SDM, Varanasi, acted arbitrarily and illegally in detaining the two persons for breach of peace. The SDM has been asked to file an affidavit explaining his conduct on March 3, the next date of hearing.

The court was hearing a matter, in which police arrested the petitioners in apprehension of breach of public peace under Section 151 CrPC on October 8 last year. The arrests happened following a tiff between Shiv Kumar Verma and another person and their family members over partition of ancestral land. After the arrest, police presented them in front of the SDM. The petitioners submitted personal bonds and other papers on October 12, but the SDM did not release them and ordered verification of revenue documents and directed the file to be placed on October 21. The petitioners were then released on October 21.