Chapter IV POLICE REGULATIONS

1. (1) The Commissioner of Police may, by notification in the Official Gazette, make regulations to provide for all or any of the following matters, namely:
   • (a) licensing and controlling persons offering themselves for employment, outside railway stations and other places where passengers arrive, for the carriage of passengers baggages and fixing and providing for the enforcement of a scale of charges for the labour of such persons so employed;
   • (b) regulating traffic of all kinds in streets and other public places, and the use of streets and other public places by persons riding, driving, cycling, walking or leading or accompanying cattle, so as to prevent danger, obstruction or inconvenience to the public;
   • (c) regulating the conditions under which vehicles may remain standing in streets and other public places, and the use of streets as halting places for vehicles or cattle;
   • (d) specifying the number and position of lights to be used on vehicles in streets and the hours between which such lights should be used;
   • (e) licensing, controlling or prohibiting the erection, exhibition, fixation or retention of any sign, device or representation for the purpose of advertisement, which is visible against the sky from some point in any street and is hoisted or held aloft over any land, building or structure at such height as may be specified in the regulations, having regard to the traffic in the vicinity, and the likelihood of such sign, device or representation at that height being a distraction, or causing obstruction, to such traffic;
   • (f) specifying certain hours of the day during which cattle shall not be driven, or, as the case may be, driven only in accordance with such regulations, along the streets, or along certain specified streets;
   • (g) regulating the leading, driving, conducting or conveying of any elephant or wild or dangerous animal through or in any street;
   • (h) regulating and controlling the manner and mode of conveying timber, scaffold poles, ladders, iron girders, beams or bars, boilers or other unwieldy articles through the streets, and the route and hours for such conveyance;
     • (i) licensing, controlling or, in order to prevent obstruction, inconvenience, annoyance, risk, danger or damage to the residents or passengers in the vicinity, prohibiting the carrying in streets and public places of gunpowder or any other explosive substance;
   • (j) prohibiting, except along certain specified streets and during specified hours and subject to such conditions as may be specified in that behalf, the exposure or movement in any street of persons or animals suffering from contagious or infectious diseases, the carcasses of animals or parts of such carcasses or corpses of persons deceased;
   • (k) specifying certain hours of the day during which ordure or offensive matter or objects shall not be taken from or into houses or buildings in certain streets or conveyed through such streets except in accordance with such regulations;
   • (l) setting apart places for slaughtering animals, the cleaning of carcasses or hides, the deposit of noxious or offensive matter and for obeying calls of nature;
   • (m) in cases of existing or apprehended epidemic or infectious disease of men or animals, the cleanliness and disinfection of premises by the occupier thereof and residents therein and the segregation and management of the persons or animals diseased or supposed to be diseased, as may have been directed or approved by the Administrator, with a view to prevent the disease or check the spread thereof;
   • (n) directing the closing or disuse, wholly or for certain purposes, or limiting to certain purposes only, the use of any source, supply or receptacle of water and providing against pollution of the same or of the water therein;
   • (o) licensing, controlling or, in order to prevent obstruction, inconvenience, annoyance, risk, danger or damage to the residents or passengers in the vicinity, prohibiting the playing of music, the beating of drums, tom-toms or other instruments and the blowing or sounding of horns or other noisy instruments in or near streets or other public places;
   • (p) regulating the conduct of or behaviour or action of persons constituting assemblies and processions on or along the streets and specifying in the case of processions, the routes by which, the order in which, and the times at which, the same may pass;
   • (q) prohibiting the hanging or placing of any cord or pole across a street or part thereof, or the making of a projection or structure so as to obstruct traffic or the free access of light and air;
   • (r) prohibiting, except in accordance with such regulations, the placing of building materials or other articles or the fastening or detention of any horse or other animals in any street or public place;
   • (s) licensing, controlling or, in order to prevent obstruction, inconvenience, annoyance, risk, danger or damage to the residents or passengers in the vicinity, prohibiting
     • (i) the illumination of streets and public places and the exteriors of building abutting thereon by persons other than servants of Government or Corporation or other Municipal officers duly authorised in that behalf,
     • (ii) the blasting of rock or making excavations in or near streets or public places,
     • (iii) the using of loudspeaker in or near any public place or in any place of public entertainment;
   • (t) closing certain streets or places temporarily, in cases of danger from ruinous buildings or other cause, with such exceptions as shall appear reasonable;
   • (u) guarding against injury to person and property in the construction, repair and demolition of buildings, platforms and other structures from which danger may arise to passengers, neighbours or the public;
     • (v) prohibiting the setting of fire to or burning of any straw or other matter, or lighting a bonfire or wantonly discharging a fire-arm or air-gun, or letting off or throwing a fire work or, sending up a fire balloon or rocket in or upon a street or within fifty feet of a street or building or the putting up of any post or other thing on the side of or across a street for the purpose of affixing thereto lamps or other contrivances for illumination except in accordance with regulations in this behalf;
   • (w) regulating the hours during which and the manner in which any place for the disposal of the dead, any dharmashala, village-gate or other place of public resort may be used, so as to secure the equal and appropriate application of its advantages and accommodation and to maintain orderly conduct amongst those who resort thereto;
     • (x) (i) licensing or controlling places of public amusement or public entertainment;
     • (ii) prohibiting the keeping of places of public amusement or public entertainment or assembly, in order to prevent obstruction, inconvenience, annoyance, risk, danger or damage to the residents or passengers in the vicinity; and
     • (iii) regulating the means of entrance and exit at places of public amusement or public entertainment or assembly and providing for the maintenance of public order and the prevention of disturbance thereat;
   • (y) (i) licensing or controlling in the interest of public order, decency or morality or in the interest of the general public (with such exceptions as may be specified in such regulations), musical, dancing, mimetic or theatrical or other performances for public amusement, including melas;
     • (ii) regulating in the interest of public order, decency or morality or in the interest of the general public, the employment of artists and the conduct of the artists and the audience at such performances;
     • (iii) prior scrutiny of such performance and of the scripts in respect thereof, if any, and granting of suitability certificate therefor subject to conditions, if any, by a Board appointed by the Administrator for the purpose, either for the whole of Delhi or for the area concerned or by an Advisory Committee constituted by the Commissioner of Police (the members of the Board or the Advisory Committee being persons who in the opinion of the Administrator or, as the case may be, the Commissioner, possess knowledge of, or experience in, literature, the theatre and other matters relevant to such scrutiny), provision for appeal against the order or decision of the Board or the Advisory Committee to an appellate authority, its appointment or constitution, its procedure and other matters ancillary thereto, and the fees (whether in the form of court-fee stamps or otherwise) to be charged for the scrutiny of such performances or scripts, for applications for obtaining such certificates and for issuing duplicates thereof and in respect of such appeals and any such performances and of the scripts in respect thereof granted suitability certificate by any State shall be exempted from this section;
     • (iv) regulating the hours during which and the places at which such performances may be given;
   • (z) regulating or prohibiting the sale of any ticket or pass for admission, by whatever name called, to a place of public amusement;
   • (za) registration of eating houses, including granting a certificate of registration in each case, which shall be deemed to be a written permission required and obtained under this Act for keeping the eating house, and annual renewal of such registration within a specified period;
   • (zb) prescribing the procedure in accordance with which any licence or permission sought to be obtained or required under this Act should be applied for and fixing the fees to be charged for any such licence or permission: Provided that nothing in this section and no licence or certificate of registration granted under any regulation made thereunder shall authorise any person to import, export, transport, manufacture, sell or possess any liquor, or intoxicating drug, in respect of which a licence, permit, pass or authorisation is required under any law relating to prohibition which is for the time being in force.
2. (2) The power to make regulations under clause (b) of sub-section (1) shall be subject to the control of the Administrator and the power to make regulations under the other clauses of that sub-section shall be subject to the previous sanction of the Administrator.
3. (3) The power of making regulations under this section shall be subject to the condition of the regulations being made, after previous publication and for the purposes of section 23 of the General Clauses Act, 1897 (10 of 1897) such regulations shall be deemed to be rules; and every regulation made, under this section, shall also be published in the locality affected thereby by affixing copies thereof in conspicuous places near to the building, structure, work or place, as the case may be, to which the same specially relates or by proclaiming the same by the beating of drum or by advertising the same in such local newspapers in Hindi, Urdu and English, or in two or more of these languages, as the Commissioner of Police may deem fit, or by any two or more of these means, or by any other means he may think suitable: Provided that any such regulation may be made without previous publication if the Commissioner of Police is satisfied that circumstances exist which render it necessary that such regulation should be brought into force at once.
4. (4) If any regulation made under this section relates to any matter with respect to which there is a provision in any law, rule or bye-law of the Corporation or of any other municipal or local authority in relation to public health, convenience or safety of the locality such regulation shall be subject to such law, rule or bye-law.

The Commissioner of Police and, subject to the orders, if any, made by the Commissioner of Police, every police officer not inferior in rank to an Inspector, may from time to time as occasion may arise, but not so as to contravene any regulation made under section 28 or any law, rule, or bye-law referred to in sub-section (4) of that section, give all such orders either orally or in writing as may be necessary to—

1. (a) direct the conduct of, and behaviour or action of persons constituting processions or assemblies on or along streets;
2. (b) specify the routes by which and the times at which any such processions may pass or shall not pass;
3. (c) prevent obstructions—
   • (i) on the occasion of all processions and assemblies; and
   • (ii) in the neighbourhood of all places of worship during the time of worship; and
   • (iii) in all cases when any street or public place or place of public resort may be thronged or liable to be obstructed;
4. (d) keep order on, and in, all streets, and at, and within, public bathing and washing places, fairs, temples, mosques, gurdwaras, churches and all other places of public resort or public worship;
5. (e) regulate and control the playing of music, singing or the beating of drums, tom-toms and other instruments and the blowing or sounding of horns or other noisy instruments in, and near, any street or public place;
6. (f) regulate and control the use of loudspeakers in residential areas, streets, near any public places and places of public amusement or public entertainment; or
7. (g) make reasonable orders consequential to, and in furtherance of, any order made under this section.

1. (1) The Commissioner of Police may, whenever and for such time as he shall consider necessary for the preservation of public peace or public safety, by notification publicly promulgated or addressed to individuals, prohibit, in relation to the whole of Delhi or any part thereof,—
   • (a) the carrying of arms, cudgels, swords, spears, bludgeons, guns, knives, sticks or lathis, or any other article, which is capable of being used for causing physical violence;
   • (b) the carrying of any corrosive substance or explosives;
   • (c) the carrying, collection or preparation of stones or other missiles or instruments or means of casting or impelling missiles;
   • (d) the exhibition of persons or corpses;
   • (e) the public utterance of cries, singing of songs or playing of music; or
   • (f) the delivery of harangues, the use of gestures or mimetic representations, and the preparation, exhibition or dissemination of pictures, symbols, placards or any other subject or thing which may, in the opinion of the Commissioner of Police, offend against decency or morality or undermine the security of the State.
2. (2) If any person goes armed with any such article as is referred to in clause (a) of sub-section (1) or carries any corrosive substance or explosive or missile or instrument in contravention of any prohibition under that sub-section, the article, corrosive substance or explosive or missile shall be liable to be seized from him by any police officer.
3. (3) The Commissioner of Police may, by notification publicly promulgated, prohibit any assembly or procession whenever and for such time as he considers such prohibition to be necessary for the preservation of the public order.
4. (4) No notification promulgated under sub-section (3) shall remain in force for more than fifteen days from the promulgation thereof: Provided that if the Administrator considers it necessary so to do for the preservation of the public order, he may, by order published in the Official Gazette, direct that such notification shall remain in force for such further period not exceeding six months from the date on which it would have, but for such order, expired as he may specify in the said order.

1. (1) For the purpose of preventing serious disorder or breach of the law or manifest and imminent danger to the persons assembled at any place of public amusement or at any assembly or meeting to which the public are invited or which is open to the public, any police officer of the rank of Assistant Sub-Inspector and above, present at such place of public amusement, or such assembly or meeting, may subject to such rules, regulations and orders as may have been lawfully made, give such reasonable directions as to the mode of admission of the public to, and for securing the peaceful and lawful conduct of the proceedings and the maintenance of the public safety at, such place of amusement or such assembly or meeting as he thinks necessary and all persons shall be bound to conform to every such reasonable direction.
2. (2) Every police officer shall have free access to every place of public amusement, assembly or meeting for the purpose of giving effect to the provisions of sub-section (1) and to any direction made thereunder.

1. (1) If the Commissioner of Police is satisfied from the report of an officer in charge of a Police Station, or other information received by him, that it is necessary to do so in order to prevent annoyance, disturbance, discomfort or injury, or risk of annoyance, disturbance, discomfort or injury, to the public or to any person who dwells, or occupies property, in the vicinity, he may, by written order, issue such directions as he may consider necessary to any person for preventing, prohibiting, controlling or regulating—
   • (a) the incidence or continuance in any street, open space or any other premises of—
     • (i) any vocal or instrumental music;
     • (ii) sounds caused by the playing, beating, clashing, blowing or use in any manner whatsoever of any instrument, appliance or apparatus or contrivance which is capable of producing or reproducing sound; or
     • (iii) use of loudspeaker or other apparatus for amplifying any musical or other sound at such pitch or volume as may cause disturbance to others, or
   • (b) the carrying on, in any premises, of any trade, avocation or operation resulting in or attended with noise: Provided that no directions shall be issued to any person under clause (b) without giving to such person an opportunity of being heard in the matter.
2. (2) The Commissioner of Police may, either on his own motion or on the application of any person aggrieved by an order made under sub-section (1), either rescind, modify or alter any such order: Provided that before any such application is disposed of, the Commissioner of Police shall afford to the applicant an opportunity of appearing, before him either in person or by counsel and showing cause against the order and shall, if he rejects any such application either wholly or in part, record the reasons for such rejection.

1. (1) In order to prevent or suppress any riot or grave disturbance of peace, the Commissioner of Police may temporarily close or take possession of any building or other place and may exclude all or any persons therefrom, or may allow access thereto to such persons only and on such terms as he shall deem expedient and all persons concerned shall be bound to conduct themselves in accordance with such orders as the Commissioner of Police may make and notify in exercise of his powers under this section.
2. (2) If the lawful occupant of such building or place suffers any loss or injury by reason of the action taken under sub-section (1), he shall be entitled, on an application made therefor to the competent authority within one month from the date of such action, to receive reasonable compensation for such loss or injury, unless such action was in the opinion of such competent authority rendered necessary either by the use to which such building or place was put, or intended to be put, or by the misconduct of persons having access thereto.
3. (3) In the event of any dispute in relation to the amount of compensation payable under sub-section (2) or the person to whom such amount shall be payable, the matter shall be referred by the competent authority to the District Collector whose decision thereon shall be final.

1. (1) In any case of an actual or intended religious or ceremonial or corporate display or exhibition or organised assemblage in any street or public place, as to which or the conduct of, or participation in, which, it shall appear to the competent authority that a dispute or contention exists, which is likely to lead to grave disturbance of the peace, the competent authority may give such orders as to the conduct of the persons concerned towards each other and towards the public as it shall deem necessary and reasonable under the circumstances, regard being had to the apparent legal rights and to any established practice of the parties and of the persons interested and all persons concerned shall obey such orders.
2. (2) Every such order shall be published in the locality or place wherein it is to operate.
3. (3) Every order under sub-section (1) shall be subject to any judgment, decree, injunction or order made by a court having jurisdiction, and shall be rescinded or altered on its being made to appear to the competent authority that such order is inconsistent with a judgment, decree, injunction or order of such court.

1. (1) Whenever it shall appear to the Commissioner of Police that any place in Delhi (being a place where on account of a pilgrimage, fair or other such occurrence, large bodies of persons have assembled or are likely to assemble) is visited or likely to be visited with an outbreak of any epidemic disease, he may in consultation with the Corporation or municipality within the local limits of the jurisdiction whereof such place is situated take such special measures and may by a public notice prescribe such regulations to be observed by residents of the said place and persons present thereat or repairing thereto or returning therefrom as he deems necessary to prevent the outbreak of such disease or the spread thereof.
2. (2) The expenses incurred by the Commissioner of Police in respect of the arrangements for sanitation and the preservation of order at or about the place of assembly referred to in sub-section (1) may be recovered from the Corporation or the municipality concerned.

1. (1) The Commissioner of Police may, by public notice, temporarily reserve for any public purpose any street or other public place and prohibit persons from entering the area so reserved, except on such conditions as may be specified by him.
2. (2) The Commissioner of Police may, whenever in his opinion such action is necessary,—
   • (a) authorise such police officer as he thinks fit to erect barriers on any street for the purpose of stopping temporarily vehicles driven on such street so as to satisfy himself that the provisions of any law for the time being in force have not been contravened in respect of any such vehicle or by the driver or the person in charge of such vehicle; and
   • (b) make such orders as he deems fit for regulating the use of such barriers.

1. (1) The Commissioner of Police may, from time to time, make regulations prohibiting the disposal of the dead, whether by cremation, burial or otherwise at places other than those set apart for such purpose: Provided that no such regulations shall be made in respect of any area for which places have not been so set apart: Provided further that the Commissioner of Police or any officer authorised by him in this behalf may, in his discretion, on an application made to him by any person, grant to such person permission to dispose of the corpse of any deceased person at any place other than a place so set apart, if in his opinion such disposal is not likely to cause obstruction to traffic or disturbance of the public peace or is not objectionable for any other reason.
2. (2) Any regulations made under sub-section (1) shall specify the places set apart for the disposal of the dead of different communities or sections of communities.
3. (3) All such regulations shall be deemed to be rules for the purposes of section 23 of the General Clauses Act, 1897 (10 of 1897) and shall be subject to the conditions of previous publication and the date to be specified under clause (3) of that section shall not be earlier than two months from the date on which the draft of the proposed regulations is published.