Challenges Beset India's Police Complaints Authorities: CHRI

 

 

Nearly six years following the Supreme Court Order that directed the states and the Centre to set up Police Complaints Authorities (PCAs) at the district and state level, a two day roundtable in Delhi on the working of the PCA's underscored the need to make these oversight bodies more robust and independent as these bodies stands compromised.

 

Envisaged by the Court as independent bodies, Police Complaints Authorities are intended to reduce the immunity enjoyed by cops by providing an easily accessible and transparent platform for the public to register complaints against delinquent officers. The concept that one can approach such a body to complain against the police is still new, and these bodies are at a very nascent stage. They face many struggles and challenges in establishing themselves, carrying out their mandates, and resource constraints from the executive. Most importantly, however, they face deep resistance from the police.

 

The two day conference organised by the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative in the capital brought together all stakeholders – the Complaints Authorities, police leadership, and targeted members of civil society at a shared forum. The chairpersons and members of these bodies got an opportunity to dialogue with the police leadership and members of civil society to discuss measures to strengthen the complaints process so that these oversight bodies may effectively address police misconduct and the serious lack of accountability that plagues the police department.

 

The PCA'a also got an opportunity to discuss the problems they face. For example, the chairperson of the Tripura PCA lamented that their recommendations were not binding while the chairperson of the Union Territory of Chandigarh stated that while their recommendations were binding, it was not being implemented. Civil Society members underlined that the legitimacy of these oversight bodies were at stake because some PCA's retired police or serving police officers and even retired IAS officers.

Navaz Kotwal, Coordinator, Police Reforms Programme, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative stated that there was stiff resistance from the political executive to set up these oversight bodies. So far there were only ten functional PCA's on the ground and 18 states including Delhi have set up PCA's only on paper. She added "Centre is the most rogue in terms of setting up these bodies-Delhi doesn't have a PCA and that the new Police Acts are so retrogressive that Police Act of 1861 was much better." She also spoke how these bodies have been compromised in terms of Composition, mandate, selection process, lack of funding and most importantly were hardly unknown to the people at large.

 

The roundtable called on the existing PCA's to work together, learn from each others experience and most importantly draft rules so that it could function efficiently and independently.

 

 

Mrs Maja Daruwala. Director, CHRI was of the opinion that there is no need for the police to resist the PCAs; they are a novel new way to help the police to improve; the complaints authority can not only bring to the notice of superiors the aggravating behaviour of members of the force but more importantly if there is cooperation between police and PCA long standing patterns of bad behavior and practice can be changed and improved. The police management should be the first client of this opportunity and not feel defensive about it. 

 

A high profile delegation of police personnel including Mr. Jacob Punnoose, DGP Kerala and Mr. J S Pandey DGP Uttarakhand also shared the police department's perspective.