674. Appointment of special police under section 17, Police Act, 1861. [§ 12, Act V, 1861].
(a)(i)Special police officers should be appointed under section 17 of the Police Act, 1861, only to meet cases of sudden emergency and, therefore, only for the time during which the special clause of disturbance exists, e.g., during a religious festival or during the existence of a flood which may lead men to cut an embankment which it is essential to preserve.(ii)Special police officers should not be appointed when there are disputes regarding rights in land which have to be settled in the Civil Courts. In such cases, if the locality is in a disturbed or dangerous condition and if the ordinary preventive sections of the Code of Criminal Procedure are found to be insufficient for the maintenance of peace, it may be necessary to appoint additional police under section 15, but not special police under section 17 of the Police, Act, 1861.(b)An application for the appointment of special police officers shall contain all the necessary particulars, of which the principal are -(i)the period for which the officers are required;(ii)the limits within which they are to be employed;(iii)the grounds for apprehending disturbance of the peace; etc., where no such disturbance has already occurred; and(iv)the reasons why the police force ordinarily employed is insufficient.(c)The Magistrate should pass orders under section 17 in proper form for which the sample given in Appendix XXXVI will serve as a guide.
