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‘Treat public with respect’: Kerala high court draws a redline for police
Kerala high court: Use of disrespectful words such as “Eda”, “Edi” and “Nee” to address citizens is impermissible and against the ethos of the democratic system, justice Devan Ramachandran ruled
Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala high court on Wednesday took strong exception to police using words such as “eda” and “edi” (disparaging masculine and femnine terms for ‘you’ in Malyalam) to address the public, underscoring that these words were relics of the colonial past and should be avoided at any cost.
A Thrissur resident Anil J S approached the high court, complaining that a sub-inspector of police verbally abused his daughter calling her “edi” during a routine traffic check to enforce Covid-19 protocol. He said the behaviour of the police officer was uncivilized and improper.
The court agreed, asserting that law enforcement agencies can’t use such terms and directed police to file a report explaining steps taken in this regard in two weeks.
The court said use of disrespectful words such as “Eda”, “Edi” and “Nee” to address citizens was impermissible.
“It is now imperative for this court to declare that such use by any member of the force is contrary to the constitutional morality and conscience of our country and is against the ethos of the democratic system,” said the high court order by justice Devan Ramachandran. The order was released on Thursday.
The court said when a similar petition came up before the court in November 2018, the then police chief issued a detailed order to all police stations to respect public and avoid such terms but the derogatory terms were in use. The court reminded senior police officers to enforce this to avert frequent complaints and said such cases will invite contempt provisions in future.
