The main legal principle established is the necessity of providing transport allowance to police personnel to address the inadequate provision of official vehicles and fuel, and its adverse effect on crime prevention and law and order.

K.K. SASIDHARAN, J.

1. It is the common practise to criticize the police force for anything and everything. Many a time we accuse them for not taking any action for prevention of crime. However, we have not made any attempt to verify whether they are having the required facilities for undertaking night patrolling, collection of intelligence and crime detection.

2. The Times of India on 21 November, 2018, reported that the Police Officers and men spend from their own pocket for their official work and they are not given fuel or transport allowance.

3. The rural Police Stations have a vast area to cover. In case the transport allowance is not given, the police men would be hesitate to undertake night patrolling covering several kilometres.

4. Since the non-payment of the transport allowance had a cascading affect on the crime prevention and vigilance, we registered a suo motu public interest litigation and issued notice to the respondents.

5. The Assistant Inspector General of Police, Law and Order, Chennai, filed a report in the nature of a counter-affidavit contending that two wheelers were allotted to the police stations based on the type of police station. According to the Assistant Inspector General of Police, heavy police stations were given five two wheelers and medium/light police stations were allotted three two wheelers. There are 7265 two wheelers and 6187 four wheelers allotted to 31 Districts and 7 cities across the State. It was further submitted that each vehicle is allotted with fuel based on the jurisdiction in which the vehicle is being used. The police officers were also given bus warrants and railway warrants. There are 625 number of patrols operated in various districts and cities, which are under the control of Sub-Inspector of Police.

6. The counter-affidavit filed by the Assistant Inspector General of Police does not answer the query raised by this Court with regard to the transport allowance.

7. It is true that two wheelers and four wheelers were allotted to the police stations. Even, according to the statistics given by the Assistant Inspector General of Police, for cities like Madurai having 21 police stations and 4 all women police stations, only 138 two wheelers and 174 four wheelers are provided.

8. The police personnel have to visit the crime scene, serve the summons, meet sources and keep themselves updated on developments in the respective area. It is the common knowledge that fuel is provided only to those who have been issued with Government vehicles and that too, with a cap of 35 litres for a two wheeler and 110 litres for a four wheeler. In case the allotted fuel runs out, these officers have to spend from their pocket.

9. Each police station has a strength of about 50 to 70 police personnel. These 50 to 70 police personnel were given only few two wheelers. For instance, there are 25 police stations functioning in the Madurai City. In case each police station has a strength of 70 police personnel, the total strength would be 1750. However, only 138 two wheelers were given to the Madurai City. Similarly, there are only 174 four wheelers. This simple arithmetic would make the position very clear that majority of the police men have to rely on their own two wheelers and spend money from their pocket for fuel.

10. The condition of the police men working in the rural area is deplorable. For instance, rural police stations, like Thirumangalam Town, Thirumangalam Taluk Police Station, Melur, Sholavandan, NP Kottai and Silaiman have large area to cover. However, there was no corresponding increase in the matter of allotment of official vehicles.

11. There are 40 stations in Madurai District excluding the traffic and all women police stations. Each station has a Special Branch staff and they report directly to the Superintendent of Police through the Inspector of Police. It is a matter of record that only few Special Branch officers were given government vehicles.

12. Each police station has considerable a