Skip to main content

ON REVAMPING THE INDIAN POLICE


It is the inbred duty of the state to provide for a non-partisan and efficient police authority that will facilitate in shielding the interests of the people. ‘Police’ being a state subject under the Constitution of India, the onus falls upon the state government to provide for a streamlined police force. Quite a few years have passed since the prominent judgement of the Supreme Court in the case of Prakash Singh v. Union of India[1] on police reforms exhorting the central and the state government to modify the police system making it more people centric than ruler centric but the ground reality seems to be unvaried. During our colonial time people had a fear of Police owing to the fact that the very fabrication of colonial police is based on wariness, and the image associated with it was robust but now that fabrication needs to be reviewed.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi while addressing the 49th Annual Conference of Director General of Police and heads of all Central police organisations rightly stated about building of a SMART Police which would be sensitive, mobile, alert, reliable and techno-savvy and also allocated a sum of 25,000 Crore for the same but there seems to be a long road to such a reform as almost after 70 years of Independence we are still being enormously hegemonized by the Indian Police Act (IPA) of 1861. British formulated the IPA as a ramification of the Mutiny of 1857. It was based on colonial wariness of the subservient ranks. After independence, though certain steps were taken to change the outlook, the police system substantially remains the same.

In the case of Prakash Singh v. Union of India, the Supreme Court directed the central and the state government to abide by the set of seven prescriptions that laid down the practical procedure to kick-start police reforms to revamp and to deal with the complications in present police laws. The court sought to achieve increased answerability and autocracy in the functioning of police through its directives. In a nutshell directives of the court were:-
  1. Recruitment of DGP to take place through a merit-based transparent affair and secures a term of 2 years minimally.
  2. Establishing Police Complaints Authority at state and district level to look into public grievances against police officers in cases of acute delinquency.
  3. To Constitute National Security Commission at the Union level to formulate an advisory panel for recruitments and placements of Chiefs of Police Organisations.
  4. Erecting Police Establishment Board to adjudicate on transfers, postings, promotions and other service related episode of police officers subservient to the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP). 

After these directions were emanated many states enacted specific legislative procedurals for the police force but there are some states who have not yet complied with these recommendations.

Analysing the Police Act of 1861

The Indian Police Act, 1861 was formulated as a consequence of the Mutiny of 1857 to bring in a streamlined regime of Police to check such acts further. The National Police Commission, 1979-81 (NPC) felt the need for rehabilitation and hence it went on to draft a Model Police Act in its Eighth Report propounded in 1981 though it was never adopted by any state yet it served as an example for nascent initiatives of ones trying to reform the out of date police laws. In its report, Commission recognized indiscriminate arrests by police as a prime headspring for corruption and believed that power of arrest must be used only in the rarest of the rare cases. Appetite for police amelioration is not a new one; people have demanded reformation in police even before our independence various commissions and committees like Ribero Committee, Malinath Committee, Padmanabhaiah Committee, National Police Commission have submitted multiple recommendations and reports which are just collecting blemishes of dust with none thoroughly implemented. Problem is that cavalier attitudes towards law and procedures are eroding the faith of people in the police. People nowadays have little or no faith in the police.  The Police Act, 1861 vests the superintendence of the police directly in the hands of the state government making it more colonial in attitude rather it should be more people friendly this is what needs to be looked into there is a need to bring in police revamping statutes so that police can be made explicable by the citizens. All in all the Police Act of 1861 needs to be replaced with legislation that manifests the democratic nature of India and the transmuting times.

Written By
Rahil Setia
1st Year

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in the article are those of the author and do not reflect the views and opinions of the Blog.

[1] (2009) 17 SCC 329

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Diwali: A Festival of Lights

There are but few festivals in India that are celebrated with as much zeal and happiness as Diwali. One would be right in saying that it is the brightest and the biggest festivals of the Hindus. So grand is its celebration that Diwali has now become an Indian festival, not just a Hindu festival. The country lights up days before Diwali and stays alight for days afterwards as well. Celebrations of Diwali go back to ancient India, with several legends claiming its origin. Harvest is perhaps its most simple and ancient claimant, however, subsequent legends like a marriage of goddess Lakshmi and Lord Vishnu and the return of Lord Rama from Lanka are equally popular beliefs. Celebrations on the day of Diwali are marked by prayers in the evenings and lighting up of houses with lamps and fairy lights in the evening, before the dark sets in. After the prayers have been done, it is a common tradition for children to burst crackers and for the elders and other members of a family to visit ...
Post a Comment
Read more

BREXIT and the Left Behind

The European Union or commonly referred to as the EU is an economic and political union of European states, with its de facto capital Brussels. The founding stones for the European Union were laid on 1ST Nov 1993, Maastricht, Netherlands.   The EU is governed by chimerical institutions and intergovernmental negotiated decisions of the member states.   The EU traces its ancestry from the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) and the European Economic Community (EEC). Over a period of 60 years, EU has achieved a lot but Brexit is the greatest disaster to befall the European Union. Brexit has become a shorthand way of saying the UK leaving the EU- merging the words Britain and Exit to get BREXIT. Article 50 of the Treaty OF Lisbon confers any EU member with the right to quit unilaterally and also outlines the procedure for doing so. The article moreover formulates the procedure for the leaving country, two years to negotiate an exit deal and once it is set in motion it can...
Post a Comment
Read more

INTRA INSTITUTE DEBATE CHAMPIONSHIP - 2018

The ability to formulate your thoughts is something that everybody possess. However, it is the ability to put across your thoughts in such a manner that they appeal to those listening, is the gift of oration. Everybody is a speaker, but not everybody is an orator.  The annual edition of the Intra-Institute Debate Competition was organized on the 15 th of February, 2018. The debate was organized in two rounds with the first eliminations round being organized on the 13 th February, open to the whole student body. The eliminations saw strong participation on the topic ‘Is Space Exploration Ethical’. On the basis of the performance at the elimination rounds, 8 teams were chosen to participate in the final round organized on the 15 th in the Multi-purpose Hall (MPH). These 8 teams were: Afreen & Nritika (II Year) Fury (IV Year) & Kainat (II Year) Sankalp & Arundhati (III Year) Trisha & Anshul (II Year) Vatsala & Tavish (V Year) Prateek ...
Post a Comment
Read more