MP high court issues notice over dacoity Act as 1,000 booked after dacoits vanished

The Madhya Pradesh high court has sought an explanation from the state government on why the 45-year-old Madhya Pradesh Dacoity and Kidnapping Affected Areas Act should not be struck down, after a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) highlighted that more than 1,000 people have been booked under it since 2020 despite the state being declared dacoit-free.

The Madhya Pradesh High Court, Gwalior bench, issued show-cause notices to the home department, director general of police, and superintendents of police of the Chambal and Gwalior ranges, asking why the law should not be struck down.

A divisional bench of Justice GS Ahluwalia and Justice Anuradha Shukla directed the state government to submit the status of pending cases under the Act. The notices were issued on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by former home minister and Congress leader Govind Singh, who sought to have the Act declared unconstitutional and repealed.

“The law was enacted to deal with dacoits who no longer exist. Yet Sections 11 and 13, which are non-bailable, are invoked even in ordinary property disputes, thefts, or altercations to suppress rights. Innocent citizens are denied anticipatory bail, violating fundamental rights to equality and personal liberty,” Singh said.

Petitioner’s counsel Rajeev Sharma said that the Act was introduced in October 1981 to curb dacoity and kidnappings in the forests of the Gwalior, Chambal, and Vindhya regions.

“It provided for stringent punishment and special courts. However, in 2017, then home minister Bhupendra Singh told the assembly that all dacoit gangs had been eliminated. In 2022, then chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan declared Madhya Pradesh a dacoit-free state,” he said.

“When there are no dacoits, why are people still being booked under this Act?” Sharma said in the PIL, citing home department data that shows more than 1,000 people charged under the law between 2020 and 2026 across six districts, including Shivpuri, Datia, Gwalior, Bhind, Morena, and Sheopur.