A police station in Patna. Telegraph picture

Patna, Sept. 14: The Patna High Court today held that “thana” means police station and does not require the use prefix “police” in Hindi.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Rekha M. Doshit and Justice Jyoti Saran disposed of the petition filed by advocate Harendra Pratap Singh, a petitioner-in-person.

The petition claimed that it was necessary to add the word police before “thana” in Hindi because people would otherwise be confused about whether it was a police station or any other kind of “thana”.

Refuting the petitioner’s contention, government counsel Prashant Pratap submitted that writing “police” before “thana” was not required as per the police manual rules.

Rule 75 of Bihar Police Manual, 1978, makes it apparent that the state police were only required to write thana in Devnagri script on its signboard.

Singh contended that thana is a Urdu word it is a synonym of police station.

He said: “Even a child in a village is aware of the meaning of the word.”

He said: “I am making this submission on the basis of definitions given by famo- us lexicographers of the country such as Hardev Bahri Bhargava, Raghuvira and others.”

However the petitioner, on the other hand, had contended that all police stations write “police” in English but just write thana or station but Hindi creating confusion about whether it is a police station or fire station.

The section 2(s) of Criminal Procedure Code and Bihar Police Act, 2007 have the provision to write the words “police station” in English or “police thana” in Hindi on the signboard or hoarding or nameplate, the petitioner submitted.

On August 31, the petitioner had told the court that the word thana creates problem for strangers to ascertain whether it is a police or a fire station and if it is a revenue thana or some other thana.