Special Executive Magistrates (SEMs):
A Special Executive Magistrate (SEM) court in Delhi granted bail to Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) activists after accepting their surety bonds, turning down the Delhi Police’s plea for a three-day custody extension.
Special Executive Magistrates (SEMs):
- It is a specialized administrative office appointed by the state government (or central government in Union Territories) for a specific term, area, or situational purpose to execute preventive law-and-order and administrative functions rather than regular judicial adjudications.
- In commissionerate systems like Delhi, police officers of the rank of Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) and above are frequently designated as SEMs.
Constitutional and Statutory Laws Governing SEMs:
- Article 50 of the Constitution: Directs the separation of the judiciary from the executive in public services; hence, SEMs belong strictly to the executive wing and do not exercise sovereign judicial trial powers.
- Section 15, Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), 2023: The State Government to appoint Executive Magistrates or police officers not below the rank of Superintendent of Police / ACP as Special Executive Magistrates for defined terms and jurisdictions.
- Section 163 of BNSS: Empowers Executive Magistrates to issue urgent prohibitory orders in cases of nuisance or apprehended danger.
Powers and Functions of SEMs:
- Executing Peace andGood-Behaviour Bonds: Authorised under Section 126 BNSS to order individuals likely to commit a breach of peace or disturb public tranquility to show cause and furnish a peace bond (with or without sureties) for up to one year.
- Conducting Summary Preventive Inquiries: Conducts structured inquiries under Section 135 BNSS into police inputs to assess whether apprehended threats to public order are substantiated before enforcing bonds.
- Issuing Prohibitory & Dispersal Orders: Exercises emergency powers under Section 163 BNSS to prohibit unlawful assemblies, restrict processions, prevent obstruction, and avert imminent threats to human life and public safety.
- Preventive Detention on Bond Default: Can remand a person to custody under Section 135(3) or Section 141 BNSS if they fail to furnish required sureties during an inquiry or breach the conditions of a signed bond.
- No Power of Criminal Trial or Conviction: Unlike Judicial Magistrates, an SEM cannot take cognizance of criminal offenses, conduct formal trials, frame charges, or convict and sentence individuals to penal terms.
- Subject to Judicial Review: All orders and detentions sanctioned by SEMs are quasi-judicial actions amenable to revision before Sessions Courts and subject to writ jurisdiction and judicial review by the High Courts under Articles 226 and 227.
