Police superintendents cannot be empowered to issue externment orders under Karnataka Police Act, Karnataka High Court rules

The petitioner challenged an externment order dated 12 August 2026 passed by the Superintendent of Police, Ballari, directing his removal from Ballari to the limits of Balki Police Station in Bidar District

He argued that the Superintendent of Police lacked jurisdiction under Section 55 of the Karnataka Police Act, 1963

The State relied on a notification dated 18 November 2025, which purported to confer powers under Sections 55 and 56 of the Act on the Superintendent of Police

1. Whether the Superintendent of Police could be designated by notification as an authority competent to exercise powers under Sections 55 and 56 of the Karnataka Police Act, 1963.

2. Whether the externment order passed by the Superintendent of Police was valid and could be sustained.

Section 55 of the Karnataka Police Act, 1963, vests the relevant power in a Commissioner in specified areas and, in other areas, permits its extension by Government notification to the District Magistrate or a specially empowered Sub-Divisional Magistrate having jurisdiction.

Section 56 identifies the Commissioner, District Magistrate, or specially empowered Sub-Divisional Magistrate as the authorities empowered to act under that provision.

Where a statute specifies the authority and manner for exercising a power, an executive notification cannot confer that power on an authority outside the statutory class.

The Court relied on State of U.P. v. Singhara Singh, AIR 1964 SC 358, Vijay Singh v. State of U.P., (2001) 9 SCC 363, Sangeeta Suryavanshi v. State of Chhattisgarh, AIR 1991 SC 772, and Sri KedarNath v. Mool Chand, AIR 1953 All 62, as cited in the judgment.

The Court read Sections 55 and 56 as specifying the authorities competent to exercise the powers they confer.

A Superintendent of Police does not fall within the categories of Commissioner, District Magistrate, or specially empowered Sub-Divisional Magistrate identified by those provisions.

Accordingly, the notification of 18 November 2025 could not cure that lack of statutory competence by designating the Superintendent of Police to exercise those powers.

The externment order, having been made by an authority without jurisdiction, could not stand.

The notification dated 18 November 2025 was declared non-est and a nullity insofar as it purported to confer powers under the Karnataka Police Act, 1963, including Sections 55 and 56, on the Superintendent of Police.

The externment order dated 12 August 2026 was quashed.

The Court clarified that this did not prevent a competent statutory authority from taking action in accordance with law.