(a)The Provincial Government has a right to call on any resident in the immediate neighbourhood to assist the police in the discharge of their legitimate duty of preserving the public peace when any breach of it is threatened; but it is not right to appoint the ringleaders of contentious factions as special police officers for the purpose of humiliating them in the eyes of their neighbours. It would, however, be reasonable so to appoint them during a time of excitement on the ground that it is desirable to select leading and influential men whose authority is likely to be respected by the mass of the population, because their presence, while employed in patrolling the streets or on other duties assigned to them by the police in matters of watch and ward, would show that they were engaged not in fomenting the disturbance but in using their influence to repress them.(b)Any person who refuses to serve as a special police officer or who, when serving as such, disobeys lawful orders, is liable to prosecution under section 19, and not under section 29 of the Police Act, 1861.
