IN THE HIGH COURT FOR THE STATE OF TELANGANA AT HYDERABAD THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE E.V.VENUGOPAL WRIT PETITION No.38529 of 2025 DATE OF ORDER: 16.04.2026 Between:

Mirza Rahmath Ali Baig ...Petitioner AND The State of Telangana, Rep. by its Principal Secretary, Department of Home, Secretariat, Hyderabad, and others ...Respondents

ORDER:

This Writ Petition, under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, is filed seeking the following relief:

“….to declare the action of the Respondent No.5 in opening and maintaining rowdy sheet against the Petitioner as illegal, arbitrary and violation of Article 14, 19 (1) (e) and 21 of the Constitution of India. Consequently, direct the Respondent No.5 to close the rowdy sheet which has been maintaining against the Petitioner and to pass.…”

2. Heard Mr. Mohd Muzaffer Ullah Khan, learned counsel for the petitioner and Mr. M.Srinivas, learned Assistant Government Pleader for Home appearing for the respondents and perused the record.

3. Learned counsel appearing for the petitioner would submit that the petitioner has been falsely implicated in crime No.73 of 2018 which was numbered as S.C. No.179 of 2025 on the file of IV Metropolitan Sessions Judge, Hyderabad under Sections 147, 148, 452, 427, 324, 506 read with 149 of IPC and Section 25(1A) as accused No.2 expect the said case no other case is pending against the petitioner. Under the guise of the rowdy sheet opened against the petitioner, the respondent-authorities are harassing the petitioner, causing repeated summons, nocturnal visits to his residence, and mental distress, thereby affecting his livelihood and disturbing his family.

4. It is submitted that under Standing Orders 601, 602, and 742 of the A.P. Police Manual, rowdy sheets can only be maintained against habitual offenders who repeatedly commit offences affecting public order, peace, or security. The petitioner, having not been involved in any criminal case for more than three years, does not qualify as a habitual offender, and therefore, the rowdy sheet maintained against him is unlawful.

5. Maintenance of rowdy sheets is governed by Standing Order No.601 of A.P. Police Manual, Part-I, Volume II, which reads as under:

“601. The following persons may be classified as rowdies and Rowdy Sheets (Form 80) may be opened for them under the orders of the SP/DCP and ACP/SDPO.

A. Persons who habitually commit, attempt to commit or abet the commission of offences involving a breach of the peace, disturbance to public order and security.

B. Persons bound over under Sections 106, 107, 108(1)

(i) and 110(e) and (g) of Cr.P.C.

C. Persons who have been convicted more than once in two consecutive years under sections 59 and 70 of the Hyderabad City Police Act or under section 3, clause 12, of the AP Towns Nuisances Act.

D. Persons who habitually tease women and girls and pass indecent remarks.

F. Persons who intimidate by threats or use of physical violence or other unlawful means to part with movable or immovable properties or in the habit of collecting money by extortion from shopkeepers, traders and other residents. G. Persons who incite and instigate communal/caste or political riots.

H. Persons detained under the “AP Prevention of Dangerous Activities of Bootleggers, Dacoits, Drug Offenders, Goondas, Immoral Traffic Offenders and Land-Grabbers Act, 1986” for a period of 6 months or more.

I. Persons who are convicted for offences under the Representatives of the Peoples’ Act for rigging and carrying away ballot paper, Boxes and other polling material”

6. The period of retention of history sheets of suspects/rowdies is governed by Standing Order No.602 of A.P. Police Manual and the same reads as follows:

“602-1. History Sheets of suspects shall be maintained from the date of registration up to the end of December, after which the orders of a gazetted officer as to their discontinuance or retention for a further period shall be obtained.

2. Merely because a suspect/rowdy, having a history sheet, is not figuring a