Right to Information Act, सूचना का अधिकार अधिनियम, جاننے کا حق: J & K : Time to Set Up “Police Complaints Authority”

J & K : Time to Set Up “Police Complaints Authority”

Raman Sharma

Without having any prejudice against or in favour of the lawyers or Police I would like to submit that the recent agitation of Lawyers in Jammu against a local police officer have highlighted a very important issue which needs no rest even after the agitation of members of the legal profession. I don’t know whether the allegations of the lawyer which is though so serious in nature is true/untrue/half true or otherwise but the rule of law must prevail.

The allegations as levelled by the advocate against the SHO are not isolated in nature and there are often complaints by citizens alleging serious abuse of authority by Policemen. The most general allegations against the policemen are that due process of law is not followed by them before taking a person into custody and the Policemen are also often accused of siphoning off the money of the accused taken into their custody. Torture in Police Custody, inhumane treatment in Prison Cell, denying basic human rights to the detainees are also very common blames the Policemen often face.

Now the question arises that do we the citizens should out- rightly condemn all the policemen on the allegation of any person or we must also give them the right to defend themselves, after all the Police officers are also are part and parcel of our society. A Policeman may be our brother, Uncle, Friend, Son and father (in my case).

Obviously as a law abiding society and as per the system of natural law of justice a person is innocent until proven guilty so we have to hear the accused (Policeman) also. But often in our state whenever any allegation is levelled against any policemen it is general perception that the police department tries to shield their own people, hardly take any action them and let them scot free because if any probe against any police officer is lodged again it is another policemen who does the so called probe the result of which in 99 percent cases is known to one and all beforehand. To find out a solution to this serious problem where the citizens losing faith in Police department, the Honourable Supreme court showed the government a way ahead. The honourable Supreme Court of India in its historic judgement has passed a very important judgement where it has clearly suggested a neutral body to look into the cases against the police people . While deciding Writ Petition(C) No. 310 of 1996, titled "Prakash Singh & Ors Vs. Union of India & Others, on 22/Sep/2006, the Honourable Supreme Court in its order has called for setting up “Police Complaints Authority”.

The Court order states “There shall be a Police Complaints Authority at the district level to look into complaints against police officers of and up to the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Police. Similarly, there should be another Police Complaints Authority at the State level to look into complaints against officers of the rank of Superintendent of Police and above. The district level Authority may be headed by a retired District Judge while the State level Authority may be headed by a retired Judge of the High Court/Supreme Court. The head of the State level Complaints Authority shall be chosen by the State Government out of a panel of names proposed by the Chief Justice; the head of the district level Complaints Authority may also be chosen out of a panel of names proposed by the Chief Justice or a Judge of the High Court nominated by him. These Authorities may be assisted by three to five members depending upon the volume of complaints in different States/districts, and they shall be selected by the State Government from a panel prepared by the State Human Rights Commission/Lok Ayukta/State Public Service Commission. The panel may include members from amongst retired civil servants, police officers or officers from any other department, or from the civil society. They would work whole time for the Authority and would have to be suitably remunerated for the services rendered by them. The Authority may also need the services of regular staff to conduct field inquiries. For this purpose, they may utilize the services of retired investigators from the CID, Intelligence, Vigilance or any other organization. The State level Complaints Authority would take cognizance of only allegations of serious misconduct by the police personnel, which would include incidents involving death, grievous hurt or rape in police custody. The district level Complaints Authority would, apart from above cases, may also inquire into allegations of extortion, land/house grabbing or any incident involving serious abuse of authority. The recommendations of the Complaints Authority, both at the district and State levels, for any action, departmental or criminal, against a delinquent police officer shall be binding on the concerned authority”

Unfortunately, neither the citizens ,media nor the Activists and even the people associated with legal profession botherered to put a pressure on the state government to implement this order of the Apex Court for setting up of Police Complaints Authority to bring a Police-Public bonhomie which is an essential ingredient to have safe secure and peaceful atmosphere in the society. The politicians of J & K State irrespective of their political affiliation who always used police people for their personal gains did not moved forward in this direction to comply with the court orders.

Therefore it is high time that in a state like ours where hundreds of policemen have laid their lives for discharging their duties and other thousands still performing their duties even in most risky environment do not get condemnation from the their own people ( Civilians) even when they are not guilty. Therefore It would be prudent that the state government immediately after the elections orders for setting up Police Complaints Authority to look into the cases of complaint against police personnels so that guilty police officer do not go scot free and entire police force do not earn a bad name because of the misdeeds of few rogue elements of the organization. About Raman Sharma, he is an RTI Activist and can be emailed at jkrtiact@gmail.com

Published in Jounrey Lines, 03/May/2014: