Section 90 of the Delhi Police Act, 1978 - Obstructing Bathers

Section 90 protects people using a bathing place formally set apart for that purpose. It prohibits wilful intrusion or incompatible use that obstructs or inconveniences bathers at such a designated location.

Text of Section 90 - Obstructing bathers

Meaning and essential requirements

Obstruct means to impede, block or interfere with an activity. Incommode means to inconvenience or disturb. These words describe the interference that Section 90 is designed to prevent.

For Section 90 to apply, the following features are relevant:

1. A designated bathing place: the location must have been set apart for bathing by an order of the competent authority under Section 88.
2. A person bathing: the provision protects someone bathing at that designated place.
3. Obstruction or inconvenience: the conduct must obstruct or incommode that person.
4. The prohibited manner of interference: the obstruction or inconvenience must result from wilful intrusion or use of the place for a purpose for which it was not set apart.

The text does not make every visit to a public water body an offence. The statutory designation of the bathing place and the nature of the interference matter.

Connection with Section 88 of the Delhi Police Act

Section 88 restricts bathing or washing at certain water sources not set apart for those purposes, or where the competent authority has forbidden such activity. Section 90 complements Section 88 by protecting bathers at places that have been set apart for bathing by an order under Section 88.

The competent authority is the authority empowered under the applicable statutory framework to issue the relevant order. Whether a particular bathing area is legally designated should be established from the actual order, notification or other authoritative record rather than assumed from customary use.

Examples of conduct that may attract Section 90

• Deliberately entering a designated bathing area in a manner that blocks or disrupts people bathing there.
• Using an officially designated bathing area for an incompatible activity that prevents bathers from using it.
• Occupying or misusing part of a designated bathing place so that lawful bathers are inconvenienced.

These are illustrations, not automatic findings of guilt. The precise location, applicable designation order and evidence of interference must be considered.

Enforcement and applicable penalties

A suspected contravention may be reported to the local police with the location, time, description of the conduct and, where available, a copy or reference to the order designating the bathing place. The applicable penalty and procedure should be checked against the current text of the Delhi Police Act, 1978, including its penalty provisions and any amendments or notifications relevant to the facts. Other laws may apply if the conduct also involves threats, assault, pollution or other independent wrongdoing.

Related legal provisions

• Section 88 - Bathing or washing in places not set apart for those purposes: designation and restrictions concerning water sources.
• Section 89 - Defiling water in public wells, etc.: contamination of protected water sources.
• Section 83 - Causing obstruction in a street: separate public-space obstruction provisions.

Official statutory source

Read the Delhi Police Act, 1978 (India Code PDF), particularly Sections 88, 89 and 90, together with the Act's definitions and applicable penalty provisions. The India Code portal can also be used to check legislative updates.

This article provides general legal information. The current statutory text, notifications, competent-authority orders and facts of a specific incident govern any legal assessment.