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Friday, March 29 2024
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The distressing story of zero Police Reform in India

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In a twist that can only happen in a real democracy, a former political detainee became the Union Home Minister, and the irony is that he called for Police Reform in India.  But this has a precedent and is a not unique event.

The Union Home ministry had, since independence in 1947 banned the CPI three times, with many of its members being sent to jail. Among these was Indrajit Gupta who was destined to become the longest-serving member of Parliament winning elections to successive Lok Sabhas no less than 11 times – first in a by-election in 1960, and then every election up to his death in 2001 except for a gap from 1977 to 1980.

By a quirk of destiny, on 3rd April 1997, he was the Union Home Minister during the premiership of H D Devegowda, when, due to proceedings in the Supreme Court related to a petition filed the previous year calling for police reform, it fell on him to send a letter to all state governments conveying the general perception that the policing system was deteriorating and calling for drastic reforms and restructuring to protect the rights of citizens and free police bodies from political interference.

Commissions of omission!

The appointment of a National Police Commission in 1977 following the misuse of law and order infrastructure during the emergency,  was focused on how to make the police “functional as an efficient and impartial law enforcement agency fully motivated and guided by the objectives of service to the public at large, upholding the constitutional rights and liberty of the people.” After the commission had submitted its report in 1981, the  National Human Rights Commission, the  Law Commission,  the Ribeiro Committee,  the Padmanabhaiah Committee and the Malimath Committee on Reforms of Criminal Justice System had examined the issue of police reforms.

After all these commissions and committees had come and gone without any result, the Supreme Court judgement in Case No.: Writ Petition (civil) 310 of 1996 Petitioner: Prakash Singh & Others, Vs Respondent: Union of India and Others, on 22/09/2006 proposed a whole slew of reforms in the Indian Police Organisations.

It is rightly said that ‘Coming events carry their shadow before them’, and in this judgement, the Hon’ble Supreme Court prophetically expressed its concern that “The question is whether this Court should further wait for (the Central and State) Governments to take suitable steps for police reforms.”  The Court hoped that “The answer has to be in the negative.” But this was not to be. Nothing has happened, but we will come to that later.

The Police Citizen interface

In democracies, it is only natural to have animated and boisterous confrontations with authorities. When this happens, the importance of the police cannot be overemphasized. Given the volatile situations that come up, again and again, the police form the basis for a very important link between the political leadership and the citizens in any democracy.

Whether it is the Black Lives Matter protests in the United States, or the protests against the use of protection against the coronavirus in France last week or in Germany earlier this week, situations have a way of spinning out of control if not handled immediately. Only a well thought out and discussed plan of action can save the peace and return the situation to normal quickly, and in this condition, the role of the local police is of paramount importance.

It is worth observing that this very important arm of a Government comes into being and operates without any formal training in most democracies. While Communist and other dictatorships are very quick to train their police, their reasons for training their cops are not very noble most of the time. It is in democracies that a viable communication between community leaders and authorities has to be maintained to ensure law and order while at the same time respecting the right of citizens to protest.

The police deployed are the starting point of citizen-government interaction and what happens here affects everything that follows. Missing is the emphasis that police have the freedom to act without fear or favour, to respect the right of citizens to dissent while ensuring that peace is maintained so that all sections of society can continue to function at the same time.

This is where the inadequacy of the present setup gets highlighted. When even wrong information can spread like wildfire at any moment, even the best police body will fail miserably if all it has for guidance is the Indian Police Act of 1861. In the 166 years since the law was enacted, the country has become independent, its population has exploded, education levels have improved, and technology has changed every moment of our daily life.

The Indian Police Act 1861

Draped and put in place after the revolt of 1857, the prime purpose of the Indian Police Act (1861) was to enable the British to dominate Indians who to them were only slaves and nothing more.  In a typically British understatement, the objective of police was stated in the act as to establish a more efficient instrument for the prevention and detection of crime.

The only important part of the act, at least for the British, was that superintendence of the police was by the state government, all appointments, deployments, discipline and control of police would be as ordered by the state government also called ‘competent authority’.

Among the other details the act specified that:

Police officers are always on duty and may be deployed anytime, anywhere in their assigned district,  

It shall be the duty of every police-officer promptly to obey and execute all orders and warrants lawfully issued to him by any competent authority

It shall be lawful for every police-officer, for any of the purposes mentioned in this section, without a warrant, to enter and inspect any drinking-shop, gaming-house or other places of resort for loose and disorderly characters.

The only punishable offence the police could commit would apparently be the refusal to obey ‘lawfully issued’ orders from above (Competent Authority), whatever they may be. Whether these orders had to be legal, or at least decent, has not been clarified anywhere.

 This Indian Police Act of 1861 has clearly outlived its lifespan.

The Supreme Court’s 7 directives

With illegal detentions, deaths and rapes in custody and other atrocities still going on, the effort to reform the police has continued and several suggestions, models and drafts have come up. After seeing no interest from the governments to bring about any change the Supreme Court judgement of 2006 itself called for implementing seven directives namely

  1. To constitute a State Security Commission (SSC) to ensure that the state government does not exercise unwarranted influence or pressure on the police.
  2. Ensure that the DGP is appointed through the merit-based transparent process and secure a minimum tenure of two years.
  3. Even police officers on operational duties (Including Superintendents of Police in-charge of Districts and Station House Officer-in-charge of a police station) are also provided minimum tenure of 2 years.
  4. To separate the investigative and law and order functions of the police.
  5. Set up a Police Establishment Board to decide on transfers, postings, promotions and other service-related matters of police officers of and below the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) and recommend the same for officers above the rank of DSP.
  6. Set up Police Complaints Authority at the state and district level to inquire into public complaints against police officers in cases of serious misconduct.
  7. Set up National Security Commission at the Union level to prepare a panel for selection and placement of Chiefs of the Central Police Organisations with a minimum tenure of two years

 The response of the Centre and the State governments till now has been exactly as feared by the court when giving the judgement.

 While a Model Police Act was already prepared at the time the judgement was delivered, no such legislation has been passed by the Centre and/or the states (it is a state subject) to implement the reforms as decreed by the court. Aware that the Supreme Court would be exceeding its remit if it tried to force any legislation to be passed, the state governments are comfortably following the old Police Act ‘till such time that a new act is passed’.

But there is hope and the hope again lies in the judiciary

A fresh application has now been filed in the Supreme Court by Senior Advocate Raju Ramachandran and Advocate Archana Pathak Dave.  The applicants have urged to Hon’ble Supreme Court to fix an early date of hearing and to appoint Expert Committees to verify compliance and review the validity of legislation stated to be passed by 17 states.

14 years after the 2006 judgement from the Supreme Court, we are still waiting to see how long it takes before any progress will be seen on this. Until then, the Indian Police Act of 1861 will carry forward the legacy of British India and ensure that nothing changes on the ground.

India’s post-independence political history has shown that the approach of successive governments on such matters has been very consistent, and not in any manner affected by the political alignment of the incumbent, and it may just be possible that finally, the required move for reform may never come, from either the executive or the legislative wings of the government, and it will be left to the judiciary to find a way out.

While the Court was quick to initiate contempt proceedings on an eminent lawyer for criticising it, it must be equally agile in ensuring its directives are obeyed in letter and spirit in a matter as important to citizens as  Police Reforms – or do they do not matter? Time will tell.

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Arun Pinto

For Arun, Journalism is an acquired passion, one that has helped him grow as a person. As an analytical journalist who prior to adopting Journalism as a profession had wide experience in the Automotive and Pharma sector.

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