Sunday, November 13, 2011

Police Reforms

Date: Saturday, November 12, 2011, 6:50 PM

 

In 2006, Government on the goading of the Supreme
Court was thinking of bringing a bill to separate the
investigative and law and order functions of the
police to ensure non-interference in the affairs of
police administration by their political masters. The
bill also proposed a fixed tenure for certain
categories of police officers for this purpose.  I do not 
think that bill saw the light of the day.

It is a well known fact that there is a nexus between
the Politicians and Criminals and under threats from
the Politicians, the Police personnel particularly at
the IPS level, who are always afraid of being harassed
by the politicians by transfer to unpleasant stations,
join this nexus and it becomes
Politician-Criminal-Police nexus.  The result is that
people do not hope to get justice and many times, it
is media who has to raise its voice so that action
could be taken against the criminals and erring
politicians.  I, therefore, feel that this nexus needs
to be broken and that can be done by not just having
fixed tenure for the police officer but by placing the
entire police personnel under an autonomous agency
because even in the event of a fixed tenure, the
police officers can be harassed by politicians, who
have vast authority under the present system, by
threats of spoiling their career prospectus.  So,
actually, the Constitution needs to be amended to have
a Central Bureau of Investigation-Cum-Central
Vigilance Commission which may be made fully
autonomous like Election Commission or Supreme Court
of India and have under its command the whole police
personnel of the country or alternatively, we can have
the American system of having elected Police Chiefs
having the requisite qualification to be elected by
the graduates of their constituency.  They should be
non-political people and have a fixed tenure of two
years so that if they do not perform, they would be
voted out.  In my opinion, only these two alternatives
would ensure the ability and efficiency of the Police
personnel in dealing with criminal people and criminal
type of politicians.  Common man who in these days, is
dissuaded from filing a First Information Report in a
Police station, would also find it comfortable to
approach an autonomous Commission or an elected Police
Chief.

Satbir Singh Bedi

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