HUE AND CRY NOTICE
- While informing the Punjab and Haryana High Court that it has not been able to arrest a fugitive pro-Khalistan preacher, the Punjab government said Amritsar Rural police has issued a “hue and cry notice” against him.
What is the notice?
- Police issues a 'hue and cry notice' when it requires help of public in cases such as:
- locating missing persons,
- identifying unclaimed bodies,
- looking out for a suspect.
Origin
- In policing terms, the phrase traces its origin to 1285 when England’s King Edward I signed the “Statute of Winchester” to deal with security and peacekeeping on a local level by revamping the existing police system.
- The ‘hue and cry’ rule simply meant that if a suspect or a criminal was running down the street in front of some bystanders, then each of them had to yell to help the police identify and catch them.
Its usage in India
- Police rules in several states, including Punjab, have ‘hue and cry notices’ as a legal procedure in their rulebooks.
- Hue and cry notice was broadly an English translation of “ishtihar-e-shor-e-goga”, one of the many Urdu phrases which Punjab Police continue to use in its daily procedures after partition in 1947.
- In current times, Punjab Police issues “ishtihar-e-shor-e-goga” in newspapers in case of missing persons and unidentified bodies.
Prelims Take Away
- Hue and cry notice
- Statute of Winchester
- ishtihar-e-shor-e-goga