Section 40 Delhi Police Act: Additional Police at Large Works and Workplaces
Section 40 of the Delhi Police Act, 1978 empowers the Administrator or the competent authority to deploy additional police at large works, public amusements and certain workplaces where traffic, crowds or concerns about employee behaviour make such deployment necessary. The person conducting the work or activity bears the prescribed deployment costs.
What is Section 40 of the Delhi Police Act?
Section 40 forms part of Chapter V, Special Measures for Maintenance of Public Order and Security of State. It addresses preventive police deployment at specified works and establishments, rather than punishment for an offence. The power depends on the circumstances described in subsection (1); costs are governed by subsection (2).
Section 40: Statutory provisions
Section 40(1): When additional police may be deployed
Whenever it appears to the Administrator or to the competent authority that:
- Clause (a): Any large work being carried on, or any public amusement being conducted, at a place is likely to impede traffic or attract a large number of people; or
- Clause (b): The behaviour, or reasonable apprehension about the behaviour, of persons employed on a railway, canal or other public work, or in or upon a manufactory or other commercial concern under construction or in operation, necessitates additional police at that place;
the Administrator or competent authority, as applicable, may depute such number of additional police to that place for as long as the need for their employment appears to continue.
Section 40(2): Who pays for additional police?
Additional police are employed at the cost of the person by whom the work, public amusement, manufactory or concern is being constructed, conducted or carried on. That person must pay at the rates required from time to time by the Administrator or competent authority, as applicable.
Meaning of important legal terms
- Administrator
- Under Section 2(a), the Administrator of Delhi appointed under Article 239 of the Constitution.
- Competent authority
- Under Section 2(c), for powers or duties under the Act, the Commissioner of Police appointed under Section 6 or another police officer specially empowered by the Central Government.
- Place of public amusement
- Section 2(k) covers places providing specified amusement, diversion or recreation to which the public is admitted on payment or with an intention to collect money, including the examples set out in that definition.
- Additional police
- Section 18 deals with the appointment and powers of additional police officers required under Sections 38, 39 or 40.
Practical effect for organisers and employers
A major construction project likely to disrupt traffic or an amusement event likely to draw a large crowd may fall within Section 40(1)(a). An establishment with employee-related circumstances making additional policing necessary may fall within Section 40(1)(b). These are illustrations, not automatic triggers: the statutory authority must assess whether the relevant conditions exist.
The Act permits deployment for the period during which the necessity appears to continue. It does not prescribe a fixed police strength, a universal tariff or an automatic right to demand deployment under Section 40. Organisers should obtain and retain the relevant deployment and cost communications.
Frequently asked questions
Can additional police be deployed at a large event?
Yes, where the conditions in Section 40(1)(a) are met and the Administrator or competent authority considers the deployment necessary.
Who bears the cost of police deputed under Section 40?
Under Section 40(2), the person carrying on the relevant work, amusement, manufactory or concern bears the cost at the rates required by the applicable authority.
How long may additional police remain deployed?
Under Section 40(1), deployment may continue for as long as the authority considers the necessity to exist.
What happens if the amount charged is disputed?
Section 42 provides a statutory process for resolving disputes about costs payable under Section 40.
Legal information only. The application of the Act depends on the facts, valid orders and applicable rules.