The U.P. Home Guards Adhiniyam, 1963
(U.P. Act No. 29 of 1963)
up430
[Dated 30th December, 1963]
Received the assent of the governor on December 30, 1963 and the English translation
of the Act was published In U. P. Gazette Extraordinary, dated December 31, 1963.
An Act to provide for the constitution of the home Guards in Uttar Pradesh
Whereas it is expedient to provide for the constitution of a force known as the Uttar
Pradesh Home Guards for utilising its services for duties in times of emergency and
serving as an auxiliary to the Police for the maintenance of law and order.
It is hereby enacted in the Fourteenth Year of the Republic of India as follows :
1. Short title, extent and commencement. - (1) This Act may be called the Uttar
Pradesh Home Guards Adhiniyam, 1963.
(2) It shall extend to the whole of Uttar Pradesh.
(3) It shall come into force at once.
2. Definitions. - In this Act unless there is anything repugnant in the subject or context-
[(a) "District Commandant" means the Officer commanding the Home Guards in a
district;]
(b) "duty" or "service" as home guard shall include the undergoing of training as such;
(c) "employer" means an employer in relation to private service, and includes his
authorised agent or manager and in the case of a corporation, firm or other
association of individuals, includes its director, partner, secretary or other persons
in charge of or responsible to it for the conduct of its business at any given time;
(d) "essential service" means motor transport, pioneer and engineering corp, fire
brigades, nursing, first-aid operation of water and power supply installations and
such other services as may be notified by the State Government as being essential
to the life of the community;
(e) "home guard" means a person who is enrolled as such, and includes an officer
appointed under this Act;
(f) "Police" shall have the same meaning assigned to the word in the Police Act, 1861;
(g) "prescribed" means prescribed by rules framed under this Act;
(h) "private service" means any service other than service under the State;
(i) [* * *]
(j) "Service under the State" means service under the "State" as defined in Article 12
of the Constitution of India, and includes service under any statutory corporation;
(k) "State Government" means the Government of Uttar Pradesh; and
(l) [* * *]
3. Constitution of Home Guards. - There shall be raised and maintained a volunteer
force to be designated the Uttar Pradesh Home Guards hereinafter called the Home
Guards and it shall be constituted in the manner prescribed.
4. Functions. - The Home Guards will have the following functions:-
(a) they will serve as auxiliary to the police, and, when required, help in maintaining
public order and internal security;
(b) they will help the community in air raids, fires, floods, epidemics and other
emergencies;
(c) they will function as an emergency force for such special tasks as may be
prescribed;
(d) they will provide functional units for essential service; and
(e) they will perform such other duties, relating to any measure of public welfare as
may be prescribed.
5. Appointment of Commandant-General and other officers. - The State Government
shall appoint a Commandant-General of Home Guards, hereinafter called the
Commandant-General, and other officers on such terms and conditions as may be
prescribed.
6. Superintendence and administration of Home Guards. - (1) The superintendence
of the Home Guards shall vest in and be exercised by the State Government.
(2) The administration of the Home Guards throughout the State shall vest in and be
exercised by the Commandant-General except in relation to any local area that may he
excluded by notification by the State Government in this behalf; and any officer
appointed to administer the Home Guards of any local area so excluded shall exercise in
relation to that area the like power as the Commandant-General exercises in the rest of
the State.
[(3) Subject to the general control and direction of the District Magistrate, the
administration of the Home Guards in a district shall vest in and be exercised by the
District Commandant.]
7. Enrolment etc. - (1) Subject to such conditions as may be prescribed, any person
desiring to be enrolled as home guards shall make an application in the prescribed form.
If such applicant is in private service he shall make such application through his
employer, or if in service under the State through the authority competent to grant him
permission to join the force.
(2) A home guard shall be formally enrolled and on enrolment make a declaration in the
form set out in the First Schedule and receive a certificate of appointment in the form set
out in the Second Schedule under the seal and signature of such officer as may be
prescribed, by virtue of which he shall be vested with the powers and privileges and be
subject to the duties of a home guard.
(3) Officers and other members of the Home Guards shall wear such uniforms as may
be prescribed.
8. Calling out of Home Guards. - Subject to the provisions of this Act and the rule
made thereunder-
(a) [the District Magistrate or the District Commandant] may by order call out any home
guard attached to a unit posted in the district for duty in any area within that district;)
(b) the Commandant-General or such officer of the Home Guards as may be
authorised by him in this behalf, may call out any home guard for duty in any part
of the State or outside the State.
9. Powers, privileges and protection of Home Guards. - (1) Subject to the provisions
of this Act and the rules made thereunder, a home guard when called out under Section
8 to serve as auxiliary to the police or to help in maintaining public order or internal
security shall have the same powers, privileges and protection as a member of the
police force appointed under any enactment for the time being in force, and shall subject
to such adaptations and modifications as may be made therein by the State Government
by notification in the official Gazette, be subject to the provisions of the Police Act, 1861
and the rule or regulation made thereunder in the same manner and to the same extent
as he would, if such home guard held a corresponding rank in the police force to the one
he holds for the time being in the Home Guards.
(2) No prosecution shall be instituted against a home guard in respect of anything done
or purporting to be done by him in the discharge of his duty as a home guard, except
with the previous sanction of the District Magistrate having jurisdiction over the area in
which the home guard was enrolled or in which the act was committed.
10. Home Guards to be public servants but not civil servants. - A home guard acting
in the discharge of his functions under this Act shall be deemed to be a public servant
within the meaning of Section 21 of the Indian Penal Code.
Explanation.-A home guard shall not be deemed to be a holder of a civil post merely by
reasons of his enrolment as home guards.
11. Liability for service. - (1) Subject to any rules made in this behalf a home guard
shall be bound to serve in any unit of the Home Guards to which he is for the time being
attached.
(2) The initial period during which a home guard may be required to serve shall be three
years from the date of his enrolment. This period may be extended with his consent
recorded in the prescribed manner.
(3) Every home guard shall be liable to serve, when called out in the prescribed manner,
for duty in any part of the State. No home guard shall be required to render service
outside the State unless he has given his consent in the prescribed manner for such
service.
(4) The home guard called out for duty may be paid such allowances as may be
prescribed.
(5) The home guards will ordinarily be called out to serve in the areas of their enrolment
and only for part-time duty.
12. Discharge, suspension and resignation. - (1) The Commandant-General or any
other officer prescribed in this behalf shall have the authority to discharge or suspend
any member of the Home Guard in accordance with the rules made in this behalf. A
Home Guard may resign from the force after giving one month's notice delivered to such
officers as may be prescribed.
(2) Subject to the provisions of the last preceding sub-section every home guard shall be
entitled to receive his discharge from the Home Guards on the expiration of the period
specified in sub-section (2) of Section 11.
(3) Every person who for any reason ceases to be a member of the Home Guards, shall
forthwith deliver up to the Commandant-General or to such officer and at such place as
may be prescribed or as the Commandant-General may direct, his certificate of
appointment and the arms accoutrements, clothing and other articles which may have
been received by him as such member.
(4) Any Magistrate may issue a warrant to search or seize wherever they may be found
any certificate, arms, accoutrements, clothing or other articles not so delivered up. Every
warrant so issued shall be executed in accordance with the provisions of the [Code of
Criminal Procedure, 1898] by a Police Officer, or, if the Magistrate issuing the warrant so
directs, by any other person.
(5) nothing in this section shall be deemed to apply to any article which under any
general or special order of the Commandant-General has become the property of the
person to whom the same was furnished.
13. Penalties. - (1) If a home guard-
(a) fails to report himself when called out for duty under Section 8; or
(b) without sufficient excuse neglects or refuses to obey any lawful order or direction
of his superior officer or other competent authority or fails to discharge his function
as a member of Home Guards while on duty; or
(c) deserts his post; or
(d) is guilty of cowardice; or
(e) offers any unwarranted personal violence to any person in his custody,
he shall on conviction by a Magistrate of the first class, be punished with imprisonment
of either description for a term which may extend to three months or with fine which may
extend to two hundred rupees, or with both.
(2) If any person wilfully neglects or fails to comply with sub-section (1) of Section 12, he
shall, on conviction, be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which
may extend to three months or with fine which may extend to two hundred rupees or with
both.
(3) No prosecutions shall be instituted under sub-section (1) or (2) without the previous
sanction of the Commandant-General or such other officer as may be prescribed in this
behalf.
(4) On a report of [the District Commandant], a police officer may arrest without warrant
any person accused of an offence punishable under sub-section (1) or (2).
(5) When a number of the Home Guard other than an officer commits an offence
punishable under sub-section (1), [the District Commandant], or such other officer as
may be prescribed, under whom the member is for the time being serving, may direct
that the charge shall be dealt without formal trial and thereupon the said Commandant or
other officer may in the prescribed manner award to him any one or more of the
following punishments namely,-
(a) confinement in such place as may be considered suitable for a period not
exceeding two days;
(b) punishment drill, extra work, fatigue or other duty not exceeding seven days in
duration, with or without confinement to quarters; and
(c) forfeiture of allowances.
14. Obligation of employer to permit Home Guards to join duty. - (1) Except as may
be prescribed, every employer shall permit a home guard who is for the time being
employed by or under him to join his duty as such, and notwithstanding anything in any
law or agreement between him and such Home Guard in force, the period of his duty
shall, subject to such conditions and restrictions as may be prescribed, be deemed to be
the period spent in such employment.
(2) No employer shall dismiss, remove or suspend any employee, or take any other
action which may prejudice such employee, by reason of his being a member of the
Home Guards.
(3) Whoever contravenes the provisions of sub-section (1) or (2) shall be punished with
fine which may extend to two hundred and fifty rupees, and the court by which an
employer is convicted under this section may further order him to pay to the employee a
sum not exceeding three months' remuneration at the rate at which his last remuneration
was payable to him by the employer, and any amount so ordered to be paid by the court
shall be recoverable as if it were a fine imposed by such court.
(4) Nothing in this section shall apply to an employer unless he had forwarded the
application of the employee concerned for enrolment as Home Guard or been informed
by the employee of his being a Home Guard at the time of applying for employment.
15. Power to make rules and regulations. - (1) The State Government may make rules
for carrying out the purposes of this Act and for giving effect to its provisions generally.
(2) In particular, and without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing power such rules
may provide for or regulate all or any of the following matters, namely :
(a) the organization, qualifications, manner of enrolment, medical examination,
functions, discipline, accoutrements, clothing and uniform of home guards and the
manner in which they may be called out for service or required to undergo training;
(b) exercise by home guards of the powers of a police officer and the correspondence
of ranks between home guards and police personnel for purposes of sub-section
(1) of Section 9;
(c) the conditions subject to which any person may be exempted from any obligation
or liability under this Act or any particular provision thereof;
(d) the delegation of the powers and functions conferred by this Act on the State
Government to the Commandant-General and other authorities; and
(e) any other matter which under this Act is to be or may be prescribed.
(3) All rules made under this Act shall, as soon as may be after they are made, be laid
before each House of the State Legislature while it is In session for a total period of not
less than fourteen days extending in its one session or more than one successive
sessions and shall, unless some later date is appointed, take effect from the date of their
publication in the official Gazette subject to such modifications or annulments as the
Houses of the Legislature may agree to make, so, however, that any such modification
or annulment shall be without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done
thereunder.
First Schedule
(Section 7 (2))
Form of Declaration
I,......................................son of...................................................................resident
of........................................ do hereby solemnly declare and affirm that I will truly serve
as a member of the Uttar Pradesh Home Guards, the duties and responsibilities whereof
I have assumed with full understanding, for a period of three years from the date of
enrolment (including the period spent over training), which period may be extended by
the State Government with my consent. I further undertake to serve as a member of the
Uttar Pradesh Home Guards at any time or any place during such period if I am called
for duty. I will do the best of my skill and acknowledge discharge the duties of the Home
Guards, and will, even at the peril of my life, ever be ready to protect the Constitution of
India and the honour of the National Flag.
Signature.
Address................
Second Schedule
[Section 7 (2)]
Form of Certificate of Appointment
Name.....................................son of..........................................resident
of...................................... has been appointed a member of the Uttar Pradesh Home
Guards under Section 7 (2) of the Uttar Pradesh Home Guards Act, 1963. When lawfully
on duty on being called out to serve as auxiliary to the police or to help in maintaining
public order or Internal security he shall have same powers, privileges and protection as
an officer of corresponding rank of the police force appointed under any enactment for
the time being in force and shall, subject to such adaptation and modifications as may
be made therein by the State Government, be subject to the provisions of the Police Act,
1861 and the rules or regulations made thereunder.
Date of appointment......................
Place.....................
Date............................... ....................................
Signature and seal of the prescribed officer.