Police Reforms

1.   The matter relating to Police Reforms is hanging fire since long. In a quest for granting independence of action to the Police from the Political Masters, even some of the actionable points are not pursued by the Police Leadership, and consequently not looked into by the successive Governments. Unfortunately, they are not pressed even by the highly sensitive and active Fourth Estate and public and its representatives (even those in Opposition) either. A very pertinent matter is relating to the mutual faith between the Courts, Law, and people at large on their Police Force. Perhaps nowhere in the world such a hopeless situation prevails, where the Tax-Payer pays to retain a mass of Public servants, i.e. the Police Force, on whom neither the Courts nor the Law (Sections 25 & 26 Indian Evidence Act and Sections 100(4 &5), 161/162 etc. of Cr.P.C.) nor the people repose any faith. Still, such a Police Force is held accountable, whenever there is any breach of Law. Neither the Courts (who are supposed to be executing Law, and are de jure, the guardians of Law), nor the Executive is held responsible. Even after more than 70 years of Independence, nobody has thought of taking any action to ameliorate the situation. The Police Act of 1861 was drafted 159 years ago and is still guiding the Police Force. The Police continues to be accountable to the Executive, and not to the Law.

2.   The Indian Evidence Act is of 1872, an ancient piece of law. It was enacted as an eye-wash for the consumption of other European Colonial Powers, to project British as most Law-abiding and just Rulers—which they were not—and all Laws and Rules were in practice, executed to serve the British interests. No wonder, then, that the Police Forces in the country were far from being friendly or helpful to the common man. The situation continued after the independence also, because in our country nobody had the vision of Mr Lee Kuan Yew, the first Prime Minister of Singapore, which was also under the British Rule. It had similar Laws as in India; but on becoming Independent they quickly adopted the British Laws & Procedures and threw away the Laws governing the Colony. Singapore sent their Police personnel for training to Britain and employed some retired British Officers to supervise the day to day conduct of their Police Force – which soon got transformed into a People’s friendly Police Force from an inhuman Police Force of the Colony. However nobody ever thought of reforming Police or our Laws in this fashion even after 70 years of Independence. We continue to carry the Colonial legacy. The outdated Police Act, the Evidence Act and the outdated Police procedures need drastic changes to create a people’s friendly Police Force in the country

3.   In my opinion, the public trust can be restored by ensuring 100% recording and subsequently redressing of the public grievances / complaints. For this purpose all Police Stations, or to begin with the Police Control Rooms / Senior Police Officers’ offices should be provided with tamper-proof telephones, public grievance recording systems and Video-recording devices. Any complaint being received must become a permanent record on the electronic system, and should be acted upon with information of various developments to the complainant from time to time on line. This will go a long way in restoring public trust and confidence on the Police Force.

4.   With economic constraints, looking into all the complaints would not be possible, unless the Constabulary is literate and is well trained and is able to discharge the basic Police function of looking into the public grievances (not of course related to investigation of cases). Constabulary forms 75% or more of the Police Force in most States), and is generally used only for security duties or providing support to higher Police Officers. In States like Bihar and Jharkhand, young constables are given armed duties in the District Armed Police (DAP), and only past 40, men are posted to Police Stations. The British logic, as told by the old timers, was that, the men could earn some extra money in the Police Stations, to take care of their social responsibilities. The system continues till date. The young constable from DAP are deployed in a group of 4, under one Havildar (called a Section). This number is ever increasing, particularly in Naxalite belts, and it needs rethinking. The Police research shows that two well trained confident men armed with automatic weapons, good at aiming and well conversant with the drill of Fire Control, can hold on to a big mob of attackers for several hours. In Jharkhand, we had experimented it successfully. In training, we had introduced subjects of enquiring into public complaints, as also on Police conduct. 1000 situations were visualised, whose answers were given, to be learnt by heart, by all men. The Pass marks in this questionnaire were 99.5%. Instead of improving the quality of Force, whenever there is an attack, the Police hierarchy and Governments at Centre and States order increase in the number of men in the Section and raise Battalions. Practice of Firing continues to be on Army pattern i.e. firing from 200 yards, not realizing that Police fire only in self defence and not on an alien enemy. Self defence does not generally hold good at 200 yards distance in civil life. In fact Police Officers and men should fire only on human figure from 10 to 50 yards at the most. Firing from 200 yards does not give good results during the practice and consequently does not infuse confidence in the men. In spite of this handicap, the Force is unfortunately rarely put through even this practice frequently. When attacked, they start firing indiscriminately out of nervousness, forgetting the drill of Fire Control, and get subdued by the attackers when their limited ammunition is finished. This happens often, resulting in the massacre of the Force, which demoralizes the surviving police men all over the State. In Jharkhand, we gave practical training on Fire Control, as also experimented the above mentioned Firing pattern, with excellent results.

5.   The feudal habits and outlook of senior Police Officers also needs to be abandoned. Regular and honest audit of the Force is required to be done, at the highest level. In one Central Para Military Force 5500 constables were found missing from any duty (something like 60 companies or 10 Battalions gulped in by the powers that be), in 1997, and the Police Chief hesitated in recalling them for duty, for obvious reasons. Such feudalism, which unfortunately is rampant in all the Police Forces, is suicidal. Constabulary must be strictly taken away from the duties of orderlies and ministerial jobs. Hundreds of them are wasted in all Police establishments, without arousing any suspicion, and is a sheer waste of man power. Use of Constabulary for such works should be strictly prohibited. If necessary ministerial staff be increased to cope up with the office work; and instead of police orderlies, menial staff may be sanctioned to work as helpers in managing phone, etc. I used to do it every month as DGP, and the result was, excess force availability in all establishments.

6.   A word here with reference to Bihar and Jharkhand, where unfortunately Associations are recognized for different ranks in the Police Forces. This has hampered the development of the Force into a proactive institution, and has adversely affected its synergy. The senior officers who are supposed to hold Police Sabha regularly or during their visits to a Police establishment, to know the grievances of the men and subordinates, feel hesitant and at times scared in doing so; for being confronted with uncomfortable questions by a handful of leaders / office bearers of Associations; who take this opportunity to show their caliber as speakers to the rest of the Force. As a result most genuine grievances of the Force remain unattended and lost in personal accusations etc. apart from loss of substantial number of Police personnel from active Police duties; as the Office bearers and members of Executive Committee cannot be sent out of their headquarters, as per the Govt. orders. In actual practice they (approximately 30 to 50 per district/Armed Battalion) do no Police work and in many police establishments are a terror for the Police Line/Station staff and indulge in many unfair practices (like checking vehicles near Police Lines) at night, associating with gambling dens etc. and terrorising Fair Price shops (as they lift ration for the Force). As per the Rules there cannot be an Association in any Force. There are no recognised Associations, in most States, as also in CPMFs.

7.   For developing mutual trust between the Police and the Courts, in all Police Stations there should be Interrogation Rooms, fitted with Video cameras and audio recording facilities. All witnesses and the accused must be examined in these Interrogation Rooms on oath of speaking the truth, and the same should be immediately sent for Court Record by Internet, so that there is no chance of tampering with the statement later by anyone. When the case is charge sheeted, the same video recording should be made available to the Defence by internet by the Court. During the trial the statement should be displayed before the open Court and after seeking affirmation from the witness the trial can start straight away from cross-examination of the witness. This will reduce tremendous amount of duplication, paper work; and will also not give rise to any mistrust. In such a situation there may not be any necessity to have Sections 25, 26 in the Evidence Act and Sections 100(4&5), 161/162 etc. in the Cr.P.C. This reform in our procedure is now long due and must be brought about immediately, as there is no dearth of funds for Police Modernisation. It may be mentioned here, that once the trust of the people and Courts is earned by the Police, there may not be any necessity left to seek independence from the Political Leadership; which in fact is a myth, and is not possible in any Political System. However if our working gets reformed as mentioned above, then we will be successful in achieving our aim of providing a people’s friendly and trustworthy Police Force to our countrymen-and this situation would be to the liking of any Political Leadership.

8.   It may not be out of context to mention here that when the British descended on our country, the Penal Law consisted of hardly 10-12 major offences (Refer “Crime and Police in India”, by Dr Anand Swarup Gupta, I.P.). The brilliant drafters of the Penal Code sub-divided these offences to carve out 511 sections out of them, only to complicate the simple Law, hitherto understood by the people & intellectuals. It has now been relegated to an ever changing exercise for intellectuals only. It may also be mentioned here that Criminal Law was considered very prompt, till the introduction of the revised Cr.P.C. in 1973; which literally derailed the Criminal Justice System in the country. Earlier, in Sessions cases, everyone right from the Police, Prosecutors, Defence and Courts used to be very much conscious of the sanctity attached to such Trials. The summons for Sessions cases used to be a serious matter. One Police Officer of the Police Station concerned, used to be detailed for carrying the witnesses to the Prosecutor, who would take pains to refresh the memory of the witnesses and prepare them for answering the likely questions of cross examination.

9.   Now, all this has become history. The Prosecutors are independent. The Sessions Trials which used to be concluded in a week or ten days now run at leisure for months together. In the name of making Prosecutors independent of the Police, they are nobody’s baby today. While the accused has a lawyer to plead on his behalf, the investigator and worse still the victim complainant, can look at no one to take care of his interests in the Court. The Prosecutor is as independent as the hon’ble Court. In the name of safeguarding the interests of the presumed innocent law breaker, “The honourable man of this game”, he can file any number of SLPs/Criminal Revisions etc. and the trial can be allowed to linger on for decades, not bothering about the perils faced by the victim, witnesses and investigators. No wonder there is so much of lawlessness in the Society for which only the Police is blamed, and the Society particularly the weaker elements and women suffer outrageously. Still there are any number of incidents of miscarriage of justice. On 5.11.2011 the Times of India (Delhi edition) carried the news on front page that an unscrupulous influential man in U.P. was instrumental in usurping their property, and getting three persons of a family convicted for life, for the murder of a co-villager, who after 10 years returned from Himachal Pradesh, in December, last year. It took 11 months to order their release even after knowing about their wrong conviction. This is the gift of Cr.P.C. of 1973. As per Times of India dated 30.11.2011 at Aligarh a poor man served the jail sentence for 7 years just because a namesake rich man managed it.

10. The convict can go in appeal without waiting for anybody, but the Prosecution cannot file an appeal before clearance from Law Secretary at the State H.Qrs. (which is almost impossible in normal cases). In Criminal cases even the aggrieved Complainant or any primary witness cannot file an appeal in a higher Court. No wonder, the best efforts by the Police to control crime fail, because of a very poor conviction rate. The Courts, the Prosecutors and the Police function today as if they are nationals of different countries not knowing each other’s language; and the brunt has to be borne by the law abiding Society. Courts are not responsible to control crime or for the lawlessness in the Society. It is left to the lot of the Police men to do so, without even the help of a lawyer for him in the Court. While revising the Cr.P.C., Civil Law which was required to be activated to reduce the burden on Criminal law, was left languishing as before, and instead the Criminal Law was also further crippled, to make it closer to the Civil Law, by the amended Cr.P.C. of 1973. No wonder the Society has risen to safeguard itself in more than one way. Naxalism is one of them, the gift of lawlessness in deep interiors. Bank loot, dacoities and rise in heinous crimes like riots / murders / rapes / goondaism in townships is another way. They are products of this disappointment in the Society from the non functional Law. Requirement of the day is to make Law Functional, and to treat Prosecution and Defence at par. No tilt is required either for or against any one of them. If law becomes just and functional, the maladies ailing the Society, like Naxalism, goondaism etc will all vanish in due course of time.

11. Continuity of Law is the soul of any legal system. If the Law is frequently changed (by its frequent interpretations by the Higher Judiciary), then it confuses the people on whom it is applicable. In U.K. the decisions of Privy Council hold good for a century or more, because there the Council cannot review its decisions without the approval of the Crown (i.e. Govt.). In our Constitution also similar safeguard was provided in Art.145(1)(e); which reads as follows:-

“….Supreme Court from time to time, with the approval of the President, make rules for regulating generally the practice and procedure of the Court including……rules as to the conditions subject to which any judgement pronounced or order made by the Court may be reviewed and the procedure for such review…..”

But perhaps the catch was not understood by the then Govt. and the Rules framed by the Apex Court (and approved by the Govt/President) gave them the liberty to review their decisions as and when they liked it; so much so that they can set aside even the Capital punishment upheld by them earlier and subsequently even after the rejection of Mercy plea by the President. The rule in this regard needs to be revisited making every one of the reviews to be subjected to a prior approval by the President. This will also ensure continuity of Law.

Summary of action needed:-

(1) By the Government:-

a) Revision of the Police Act of 1861, and Indian Evidence Act of 1872 to make Police Force more people friendly and effective;

b) Amendments in sections 25, 26 etc. Evidence Act of 1842, to make evidence recorded as per the modern gadgets admissible in Law, starting the chapter of faith in the Investigator by the hon’ble Courts;

c) Providing modernization grants to the Police Departments so that the Interrogation Rooms of the Police Stations and other establishments are properly and adequately furnished, inter connected by internet with the modern and tamper proof gadgets

 d) To enhance the ministerial staff wherever needed so that men in uniform are not wasted in offices and personal support duties ;

 e) Similarly to sanction menial staff to assist the officers, and to abolish Police orderlies or security aids;

 f) Security apparatus for VIPs to be separated like the Traffic Police with specialized training for the purpose;

g) Constables should be at least Higher Secondary or Intermediate Passed so that they are able to understand basics of Law and procedures and are capable of dealing with simple grievances of public. Thus, they should be made more useful as public servants;

h) Equipping the Force with modern weapons in which they are properly trained.

i) To revise Civil Procedure Code to make Civil Law more prompt and effective, so that the burden on Criminal Law is mitigated.

j) To abolish all Associations in Police Forces, wherever they are in existence.

k) To revise the Criminal Procedure Code to:

• bring Prosecution and Defence at par in all respects;
• Prosecutors to be the Advocates for the Investigators, available to guide them right from the drafting of complicated F.I.Rs. till the final disposal of the case as was the system before 1973;
• restoring the sanctity of Sessions Trials as was before 1973;
• procedure to file appeal in Criminal cases to be simplified and right given to the complainant and Primary witnesses to file appeal in such cases if they are not satisfied with the judgement. State’s hegemony in criminal cases should be finished;
• only one appeal/revision to be allowed in any case, which should lie in the next Higher Court (Law should repose faith in the Capacity of hon’ble Lower Courts to discharge justice);
• abolishing of sections like 100(4&5), 161, 162 etc from the Cr.P.C. to repose confidence in the Police Force/Investigators;
• all dilatory tactics, like the filing of SLPs, criminal appeals etc. should be abolished; and PIL etc not mentioned in the Constitution should be stopped. Only writs should continue to be heard by hon’ble Supreme Court and High Courts;
• in case of any injustice coming to the notice of any Court, such as the ones mentioned above, there should be provision to rectify it immediately at the district level itself, with provision to punish the guilty person found responsible for the miscarriage of justice simultaneously;
• in property offences provision should be made, to restore the recovered stolen property to the victim during investigation itself( it can be produced by him during trial before the Court); similarly in cheating, fraud, anti-corruption cases provision should be there for immediate restoration of loss to the victim and confiscation of ill gotten gains in Corruption cases.
• Amendment in the Criminal Procedure Code to provide for the video recording of the statements of complaints, witnesses, accused etc and their immediate transmission to the hon’ble Courts by internet for record and providing the same to the Defence when needed;

l) Existent Rules made under Article 145(1)(e) of the Constitution, need to be revised to make frequent change of Law by interpretation difficult.

(2) By the Police Leadership:-

a) To ensure that their team works with all sincerity and truthfulness to earn the confidence of the people and the hon’ble Courts;

b) To establish tamper proof registration of public-grievance system, and Modern Interrogation Rooms with video recording facility;

 c) To ensure that public grievances are attended to, promptly and developments are intimated to the aggrieved party from time to time;

d) Frequent and sincere audit of the Police Force to ensure that no Policeman is misused;

e) To ensure better and frequent training to the entire Police Force with frequent revisions particularly in dealing with public, press, practising firing and Fire Control. Training should include practical/ actual life situations for all;

f)To cast away the feudal style of thinking, living and functioning which is the gift of the British.

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