New Delhi: When Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) leaders Ashutosh Ranka and Saurav Das were sent to judicial custody earlier this month, one term appeared repeatedly in the proceedings: Kalandra.
The Delhi magistrate’s order of 14 October recorded that a copy of the ‘kalandra’ had been provided to both of them, and that the police had submitted videos along with the report. The order also referred to earlier preventive proceedings against them and alleged violations of bonds they had executed to maintain peace.
The term ‘kalandra’ subsequently featured in reports on their continued detention. As a document, Kalandra can be described as a police report submitted to an Executive Magistrate seeking preventive action.
Why does it feature in proceedings that can result in a person being sent to preventive custody?
A kalandra is generally a report prepared by police setting out facts and circumstances that, in their view, warrant preventive action ordered by an Executive Magistrate. It is not the same as a First Information Report (FIR), which records information about an alleged criminal offence. Nor does the submission of a kalandra, by itself, establish that a person has committed a crime.
From ‘calendar of cases’ to kalandra
There is no official explanation on how this term came to be used in Indian policing vocabulary.
One explanation traces the word to the English term “calendar”, used in court administration for a list or schedule of cases. According to this account, the word entered local police vocabulary during British rule and gradually evolved into “kalandra” or “kalandara” through linguistic adaptation.
The explanation is plausible, given the word’s association with official records and lists of cases. Urdu and Hindi dictionary entries also connect the term with a list of offences or a police document submitted before a magistrate.
However, a direct documented link between the British-era expression “calendar of cases” and the modern police term has not been firmly established, making this explanation only a possible origin rather than a settled historical fact.
What is clear, however, is the broader context in which such reports are used: to just seek preventive action in a matter, rather than a trial and judicial action that an FIR entails.
Preventive policing allows authorities to intervene when they believe a breach of peace may occur, rather than waiting for violence to take place. The underlying idea predates Independence, although the powers and procedures governing preventive action have changed over time.
The term continues to be used in police practice, particularly in parts of north India, including Delhi, Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh. Its precise use can vary according to the circumstances and the legal provisions invoked.
How a kalandra works under the law
The legal framework governing preventive proceedings is now set out in Section 126 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS). This section allows an Executive Magistrate, on receiving information that a person may breach the peace or disturb public tranquillity, to require that person to show cause why they should not execute a bond to keep the peace.
The bond can be required for up to one year. The corresponding provision under the old CrPC was Section 107.
In practice, police may submit a kalandra after a dispute or an incident that they believe could lead to a breach of peace. The magistrate then considers the report and the material placed before the court before deciding what action is warranted.
A kalandra should not, however, be confused with an automatic power to arrest or detain someone. Preventive arrest is governed by separate legal provisions, including Section 170 of the BNSS, which sets out specific conditions for police action.
The legal basis for any subsequent custody must be examined separately.
The CJP proceedings
The CJP proceedings have brought these distinctions into focus. In Ranka and Das’s case, the magistrate’s order referred to their earlier peace bonds, alleged subsequent violations and police material submitted with the kalandra. The two were initially remanded to judicial custody for five days, with their custody later extended by two more.
The proceedings also raise a wider question about how preventive powers are exercised. While authorities can act to avert a threatened breach of peace, those powers must operate within the law and with due regard to personal liberty.
To sum it up, a kalandra is the police report that can set preventive proceedings in motion. What follows depends on the applicable law, the evidence placed before the magistrate and the orders passed in the individual case.
(Edited by Ajeet Tiwari)