The High Court today justified a provision under which Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) has been collecting information about residents of the city.

While delivering the verdict, the court ruled that the DMP can take any step as per Dhaka Metropolitan Police Rules and Regulations- 2016 for keeping law and order situation under control and also for public security.

The steps taken by the DMP to prevent militancy and terrorism maintaining the rule are justified, the court said.

The HC bench of Justice Moyeenul Islam Chowdhury and Justice Ashish Ranjan Das came up with the judgement after disposing of a writ petition filed challenging the legality of the DMP provision.

Three Supreme Court lawyers, including Aynunnahar Siddiqua, filed the petition as public interest litigation on March 20.

According to the petition, police did not have authority under the provision to collect information about tenants.

Under the provision, information could be collected on individual cases, not on a mass scale, it said.

DMP on February 29 announced that it had been collecting “identification information” about landlords and tenants since November 2015 and asked all to provide it by March 15.

On March 27, the HC issued a rule upon the government to explain why the provision should not be declared unconstitutional and illegal.