Should landlords maintain records of their tenants?
The police in Navi Mumbai should compel landlords to furnish the name, photograph, phone number, occupation and other details of their tenants. It is likely that terrorist/anti-social elements may seek hideouts in the guise of tenants. Hence the Navi Mumbai police should seek particulars of tenants in the city. Landlords who fail to comply should be threatened with stringent punishment. The context for this drive is the rise in cases of looting, chain-snatching, house break-ins and so on in Navi Mumbai.
Some landlords do not like this idea of maintaining detailed records about their tenants since according to them this move raises disturbing questions relating to civil rights, public safety and privacy. They call it a bad idea. Singling out tenants for scrutiny seems to betray an age-old bias against migrants and those without property, they say. True, the details of property owners are available with the land registration department, but the police have, so far, not shown any intention of accessing them for integration with their centrally collated data on tenants.
There are indeed laws which compel landlords to provide information about their tenants but these laws are being challenged by many. They say that if the police are allowed to possess such sweeping powers then there will be no limit to the kind of information they may seek in future. Citizens could be told to maintain a register of family and friends visiting them from other parts of India, for example.
In 2001, public outcry forced the erstwhile NDA government at the Centre to scrap the Foreigners (Report To Police) Order, 1971, under which citizens were threatened with imprisonment if they didn't inform the police about the presence of foreigners in their homes.
This is the argument of a landlord in the matter of furnishing details about the tenants. He says, “If the authorities want to gather information on landlords and tenants as a means of streamlining the rental process in cities, let them do so through a specific statute. Using emergency powers is overkill. The police should also not labour under the illusion that tenant verification will help fight crime. Terrorists and anti-social elements have the means to prepare fake identity papers. Crime prevention requires better policing methods and intelligent deployment of manpower. This is where law enforcement priorities should lie, not in turning landlords into spies.”
The police in Navi Mumbai should compel landlords to furnish the name, photograph, phone number, occupation and other details of their tenants. It is likely that terrorist/anti-social elements may seek hideouts in the guise of tenants. Hence the Navi Mumbai police should seek particulars of tenants in the city. Landlords who fail to comply should be threatened with stringent punishment. The context for this drive is the rise in cases of looting, chain-snatching, house break-ins and so on in Navi Mumbai.
Some landlords do not like this idea of maintaining detailed records about their tenants since according to them this move raises disturbing questions relating to civil rights, public safety and privacy. They call it a bad idea. Singling out tenants for scrutiny seems to betray an age-old bias against migrants and those without property, they say. True, the details of property owners are available with the land registration department, but the police have, so far, not shown any intention of accessing them for integration with their centrally collated data on tenants.
There are indeed laws which compel landlords to provide information about their tenants but these laws are being challenged by many. They say that if the police are allowed to possess such sweeping powers then there will be no limit to the kind of information they may seek in future. Citizens could be told to maintain a register of family and friends visiting them from other parts of India, for example.
In 2001, public outcry forced the erstwhile NDA government at the Centre to scrap the Foreigners (Report To Police) Order, 1971, under which citizens were threatened with imprisonment if they didn't inform the police about the presence of foreigners in their homes.
This is the argument of a landlord in the matter of furnishing details about the tenants. He says, “If the authorities want to gather information on landlords and tenants as a means of streamlining the rental process in cities, let them do so through a specific statute. Using emergency powers is overkill. The police should also not labour under the illusion that tenant verification will help fight crime. Terrorists and anti-social elements have the means to prepare fake identity papers. Crime prevention requires better policing methods and intelligent deployment of manpower. This is where law enforcement priorities should lie, not in turning landlords into spies.”
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