Supreme Court cautions on ‘history sheets’: All you need to know about the practice

The Bench was deciding a plea by AAP MLA Amanatullah Khan challenging a history sheet opened against him, and a proposal to declare him a ‘bad character’ by entering his name in the surveillance register at Delhi’s Jamia Nagar police station.

What is a history sheet, and how and against whom is the process of ‘history sheeting’ initiated?

In police parlance and procedure, a history sheeter is an individual with a significant criminal history — someone who has been implicated in multiple offences. The process of opening a ‘history sheet’ is governed by the police rules of respective states, such as the Punjab Police Rules, 1934 which is applicable in Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi, and Chandigarh.

The process begins when the Station House Officer (SHO), who is the head of the police station, takes notice of an individual who has been proven guilty in multiple cases, and/or is found to be constantly engaged in criminal activities.

Subsequently, a report containing detailed information about them, their associates, and known relatives, is submitted to the Senior Superintendent of Police or Superintendent of Police of the district through the Assistant Commissioner of Police.

A person can also be ‘history sheeted’ based on an ongoing assessment by police of the danger that they pose to society.

What kind of details are included in a history sheet?

According to the Punjab Police Rules, 1934, a history sheet must contain a description, with special attention to “peculiarities of appearance”. It must mention “relations and connections” (associates, relatives etc.) to give clues regarding those persons “with whom the criminal is likely to harbor when wanted by the police”.

Moreover, any property owned the criminal, and her mode of earning a livelihood, should also be entered to “facilitate a judgment as to whether the criminal is at any time living beyond his means; whether he is capable of furnishing a personal recognizance of any value; whether he is an owner of property, a tenant or a wage-earner, and so on”.

Are all kinds of crimes and criminals clubbed together in a single history sheet?

There are multiple kinds of history sheets — including ‘KD (Known Depredators) sheets’, ‘suspect sheets’, ‘rowdy sheets’, ‘members of organised crime sheets’, and ‘budding criminal sheets’ — depending on the assessment of the police.

KD sheets are made for criminals convicted of crimes such as dacoity, robbery, or burglary. Rowdy sheeters are those who habitually commit or abet the commission of offences involving breach of the peace. Suspect sheeters are those who have been convicted once for an offence of burglary or theft.

History sheets are opened automatically following conviction for dacoity, robbery, burglary, and theft; for habitual offenders; and upon release from life imprisonment for certain cases of financial crime. The exact procedure for opening history sheets and the conditions in which they are opened varies, depending on the state or UT’s standing orders and police manuals.

When did the practice of history sheeting begin?

The term history sheet appeared for the first time in the Punjab Police Rules of 1934. These rules also state that a history sheet can be opened against someone “ who is reasonably believed to be habitually addicted to crime or to be an aider or abettor of such persons,” irrespective of whether they have been convicted or not.

In his paper ‘Bad Characters, History Sheeters, Budding Goondas and Rowdies: Police Surveillance Files and Intelligence Databases in India’ (2010), Mrinal Satish of National Law School of India University, Bengaluru, noted that the language used in the various police rules is “disturbingly similar to police records maintained of “criminal tribes” by police in colonial India”.

The Criminal Tribes Act, 1871 stated that if the local government had reasons to believe that any “tribe, gang or class of persons” is addicted to the “systematic commission of non bailable offences”, the government may report the case and request to get the tribe or gang to be declared “criminal”.

What was Amanatullah Khan’s plea in the Supreme Court?

According to Khan, he learnt from posts on social media on May 13, 2022, that the SHO of Jamia Nagar had on March 28 that year submitted a dossier to the Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), New Friends Colony and Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), South East police district, along with a proposal to open a history sheet and place his name as a “Bad Character” (BC) in police records to keep a close watch on his activities.

The proposal was accompanied by a list of 18 cases pending against Khan. The petitioner said that the information was leaked on the day his bail application was listed before a trial court. He said that he had been discharged, acquitted, or the FIR had been quashed, in 14 cases registered against him, and that these cases mostly related to offences such as intimidation, threatening, and riots.

In January 2023, the Delhi High Court had dismissed Khan’s plea against the opening of the history sheet by Delhi Police, and the tag of ‘Bad Character’. A single-judge Bench of Justice Sudhir Kumar Jain had held that the Delhi Police had followed “due procedure of law”, and “complied with the mandatory requirements” of the Punjab Police Rules, 1934, in a reasonable manner.

The Supreme Court rejected Khan’s appeal, but directed police to make sure that details of his minor children and wife are not reflected in the history sheet.

The police submitted that the format for ‘history sheeters’ was in accordance with the 1934 Rules, but it would revisit them to ensure that the dignity, self-respect and privacy of innocent people who happen to be family members, are not compromised.

Earlier on March 21, 2024, the Delhi Police Commissioner had issued a Standing Order saying details of minor relatives should not be included in the history sheet.