Critical Analysis of Problems faced by Police System of India and their Solutions By: Shashwat Tiwari

INTRODUCTION

Since idea of the democracy was conceptualised, one of the major concerns regarding its intrinsic functions is the maintenance of law and order. The Hobbesian paradigm which lays down the reason for establishment of “state” and democracy being its modern adaptation, the role of Police or an enforcement agency has remained at the centre of discourse.Ancient India history dating back to the time of Kautilya has a mention of a law enforcing agency in the voluminous text of Arthshashtra (which consist of twenty one books, chapters three and four) deal with administration of justice which he regards as Dandniti or the science of law enforcement that deals with both civil and criminal law and provides for sanctions or punishments relating to different offences.

The Constitution of India, following its ancient history and borrowing principles of justice from various western countries has laid down provisions for administration of Justice in a fair and reasonable manner to each citizen.

The Judicial system of India can be majorly divided into branches:

• Police system deriving its authority from Police Act 1961 and various other state legislations as it is a state subject mentioned in list II of Seventh Schedule of Constitution of India.
• Courts (District Courts, High Courts and the Supreme Court) deriving its authority from Constitution of India.

The appalling condition of the Judicial system of India is due to many factors but one the most important factor is Police system and post emergency there have been many deliberations with respect to the problems that besets our Police systems. Various committees and commissions have been constituted by Central and State Governments to study these difficulties and look for plausible solutions. One of the first that was constituted during the British rule was A.H.L. Fraser Commission in 1902 which gave a very negative idea of Police and said it was inefficient, inadequate, oppressive, corrupt, is unable to maintain law and order also has failed to secure confidence and trust of the citizens. Post-Independence the system; its rules and regulations changed it became more comprehensive and inclusive by the appointment National Police Commission which had the significant function of defining Police’s role, functions, powers, jurisdictions, accountability and relations with the general public. The commission in its 8^th report submitted in the year 1982 laid down provisions for constitution of Police Act Drafting Committee (PDAC) with the main objective of drafting Model Police Bills and usher in police reforms in the system.

The major recommendations of the commission were:

• Complaint against Police would be dealt in two-fold manner that is: Departmental Inquiry and Inquiry by independent authorities.
• These complaints would be disposed off by the officers of supervisory rank.
• Mandatory judicial inquiry for cases of: Rape in police custody, Death in police custody, Hurt or Assault in police custody.
• Death of two or more persons in police firing.

PRAKASH SINGH AND OTHERS VS. UNION OF INDIA

In 1996, Prakash Singh, a retired police officer and another Director General of Police filed a petition in the Supreme Court of India for directing the Central Government and State Governments to draft a new Police Act which would follow the Model Act/Bills. The intent behind such legislation would be to draft an act which takes into consideration the problems faced by the whole police system of the country. The petitioners listed some significant areas which needed rejuvenation like the archaic structure, abuse of authority, political interference, inefficient functioning etc. Realising the gravity of the matter and the uncertainty of time on the part of Governments, the apex court in 2006 issued directions, which led to the landmark reforms in the law enforcement system of the country. These directions were binding on the governments, until they draft a law in the same issues and were supposed to file a affidavit of compliance.

The directives could be divided under two broad categories which are as follows:

1. Increasing Functional Autonomy
2. Enhancing Police Accountability

INCREASING POLICE AUTONOMY

• DIRECTIVE ONE

Constituting State Security Commission (SSC) for the following purposes:

1. Eliminating Political or Governmental interference from the Police.
2. Laying down broad guidelines for the functioning of Police.
3. Evaluation of performance by an independent body.

• DIRECTIVE TWO

1. Appointment of Director General of Police (DGP) on merit-basis and including a more transparent approach for their induction.
2. Minimum tenure of two years for DGP.

• DIRECTIVE THREE

Minimum term for police officers including Superintendents of Police should be two years.

• DIRECTIVE FOUR

Establishing a Police Establishment Board under various State governments that would have the authority to decide the transfers, postings, promotions, salaries of officers below the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) and recommendations on transfers, promotions, postings of police officers above the rank of DSP.

• DIRECTIVE FIVE

1. Setting-up National Security Commission under State Government which would have a panel of for placement and selection of Chiefs of Central Police Organisations.
2. Minimum term for the same would be two years.

ENCHANCING POLICE ACCOUNTABILITY

• DIRECTIVE SIX

Constituting Police Complaints Authority (PCA) which would be a state level authority for looking into the cases of complaints against police officers above the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Police in the cases of:

• Custodial death
• Rape in custody
• Grievous Hurt in custody
• Professional Misconduct

The authority would also conduct inquires for the cases below the rank of DSP.

• DIRECTIVE SEVEN

Differentiating law and order with investigation by constituting a separate Security Commission so that the political interference in the law enforcement is reduced and laying down policy guidelines for State Police to act in accordance with laws of the land and the constitution of India. The recommendations of the commission are binding on the state government. The watchdog would be headed by the Chief Minister or Home Minister as the Chairman and the DGP as the ex-officio Secretary.

After the petition was filed in the Apex court, the Central government constituted various committees to study the gaps in the police system and their recommendations were taken into consideration. Some of these committees were Julio Riberio in 1996, Padmanabhaiah, Malimath committee, Soli Sorabjee committee.

MAJOR PROBLEMS & CHALLENGES FACED BY THE POLICE SYSTEM

• Police being a part of executive is not free from political interference. Politicization of police force and its use to take undue advantage by those in power.
• Internal management systems are not transparent, free and reasonable; they are sometimes arbitrary in nature.
• Policing efficiencies have decreased in terms of their core functions.
• Public complaints are not addressed properly, there is huge gap between rate at which crimes are committed and FIRs are lodged.
• Police accountability is major issue, especially with respect to fake encounters, custodial deaths.
•  Quality of investigating standards is deteriorating, lack of equipment, weaponry used is obsolete.
• Lack of coordination between the internal departments leading to delays in investigation.
• Training standards are very low and do not take into consideration the use of modern technology.
• Workload again is one of the major reasons for the inefficiency of Police.

THE WAY OUT

Police force being the spine of any civil society should be first and foremost has the trust of the citizens because if there is no regard for the police for there are perfect chances for a civil war. The Indian Police force is lacking at many fronts and needs reforms and rejuvenation in order to cope up with the fast growing crimes in the country. There are many ways through which there can a complete overhaul of the police machinery and make it more efficacious.

Although there are many ways in which the system can be transformed but one of the major problems which needs attention is the area of capacity building through technology and tackling crime and investigation through new technologies like the west has done it.

Firstly one of the major problem is with the capacity of the police force which is very less there are many states and union territories which have large number of vacancies at different levels. In order to tackle the problem of capacity and effectiveness United States government has tied it with COMPSTAT which is computer statistics, which locates the number of crimes in a particular locality and help the department transfer the best trained personnel to those areas. In this way, area-wise crime reports studied and analysed and thus the counter-plan for eliminating crime is prepared.

Improvement in the Information Technology infrastructure will help the investigating department to tackle the crimes in a much more simpler and easy manner. The creation of IT infrastructure would help in tracking cases to tackle delays which lead to mounting pendency. Investment in management techniques, building criminal databases would help reduce the crime rate at a very fast pace.

Also one of the other important areas which needs change is the complaints against police officers and their investigation, these should be done by independent bodies which have no political as well as police interference only the crime against innocent citizens would reduce. Because the departmental investigation and proceedings are biased and partial in some way or the other there is need for the an independent statutory authority which is capable of conducting investigations in complaint against police and also has penalising power of suspending or removing an officer for misconduct.

The Author, Shashwat Tiwari is a 3rd Year student of Institute of Law, Nirma University, Ahmedabad. He is currently interning with LatestLaws.com.