Manipur police – It's already late for reformation
- Part 4 -

Soubam Nongpoknganba Meitei *

Manipur Police Raising Day Parade at 1st Bn Manipur Rifles Parade ground on 19th October 2011 :: Pix - Bullu Raj

(6) Police Complaints Authority: 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.

(7) National Security Commission: The Central Government shall also set up a National Security Commission at the Union level to prepare a panel for being placed before the appropriate Appointing Authority, for selection and placement of Chiefs of the Central Police Organisations (CPO), who should also be given a minimum tenure of two years.

The Commission would also review from time to time measures to upgrade the effectiveness of these forces, improve the service conditions of its personnel, ensure that there is proper coordination between them and that the forces are generally utilized for the purposes they were raised and make recommendations in that behalf. The National Security Commission could be headed by the Union Home Minister and comprise heads of the CPOs and a couple of security experts as members with the Union Home Secretary as its Secretary.

The Court further directed that the said directions shall be complied with by the Central Government, State Governments or Union Territories, as the case may be, on or before 31st December, 2006 and the Cabinet Secretary, Government of India and the Chief Secretaries of State Governments/Union Territories were to file affidavits of compliance by 3rd January, 2007.

Despite such clear and unambiguous directions of the highest court of the country, most the of the states have failed to fully comply with it citing one or the other reasons. It has been opined by Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative that the directives if complied, can achieve two goals viz., functional autonomy for the police thereby insulating the police from pressure from their political boss and enhancement of police accountability thereby closing the gate to commit misdeeds and mistakes freely with impunity and they will be answerable for their actions and in fact it is these two key areas where the police is failing seriously and therefore it has become most important that these directives are followed to the letter and spirit The Justice Verma Committee also remarked that "We believe that if the Supreme Court's directions in Prakash Singh are implemented, there will be a crucial modernization of the police to be service orientated for the citizenry in a manner which is efficient, scientific, and consistent with human dignity.

The Committee believes that this will be reflective of the need of society today and not that of control or suppression as in the colonial era. The committee takes the view that in line with Prakash Singh, implementation of the Supreme Court directions need not await the framing of a new Police Act. Until an Act, on the lines of the Model Police Act, proposed by the Sorabjee Drafting Committee, or that which is annexed to the 8th report of the National Police Commission, is passed by Parliament and implemented across the country, the seven directions in Prakash Singh must be complied forthwith"

As per a report by Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) the status of compliance of the said directives as on February' 2014 by Manipur is as follows :

1. State Security Commission (Directive 1) : Constituted vide Order dtd 31.03.07. However, its composition does not include a judicial element.

2. Selection & Tenure of DGP (Directive 2) : Order dated 28.12.06 issued. Minimum tenure notified, except in cases of superannuation.

3. Tenure of other Officers (Directive 3) Order dated 28.12.06 issued.

4. Separation of Investigation from law & order (Directive 4) Not applicable as no town or urban area has a population of ten lakhs or more.

5. Police Establishment Board (Directive 5) Constituted vide Order dated 28.12.06. However: 1) The Board is authorized to decide only transfers / postings of Dy. SPs, and below. For other service matters, it will only make recommendations. 2) For SPs and above, the Board will make recommendations, but the order does not specify that the Government will give due weight to those recommendations and shall normally accept them.

6. Police Complaints Authorities (Directive 6) Constituted vide Order dated 31.03.07. However: 1) The independent members of the State-level Authority are all retired bureaucrats. 2) Independent members for the District-level Authorities do not seem to have been nominated. 3) The recommendations of the Complaints Authorities are not binding on the authorities concerned.

7. Status of police legislation : Police Bill reportedly being drafted.

This compliance chart was prepared by CHRI on the basis of the affidavit submitted by the State Government to the Supreme Court. However quite unfortunately, we public can see nothing physical on the ground as to the constitution of the State Security Commission, Police Complaints Authorities and Police Establishment Board though the same has been done as per the said chart vide order dtd. 31.3.2007 and 28/12/2006.

As far as the separation of investigation from law and order is concerned, it has been misinterpreted by the state government. The direction is meant for every area but as the big states may not be able to commence such separation at one time through out the state, the court has given a practical modality of phase wise commencement of the directive namely, to initiate it in towns/urban areas which have a population of ten lakhs or more and gradually extend to smaller towns/urban areas also. But the language of the directives by any standard does not say that such separation should be effected only in towns/cities with a population of ten lakhs or more. However the Manipur Government has interpreted, intentionally or otherwise, the directives as not enforceable in Manipur as the state does not have town/city having a population of ten lakhs or more.

The separation of investigation and law and order maintenance is of vital importance in the state of Manipur as according to the authority themselves, there is a much higher degree of law and order problem in the state than other parts of the country. And according to the Supreme Court itself, the separation will deliver to the police a better expertise and improved rapport with the people. However for reasons not known to the public, the government has misinterpreted the directives of the Court and has evaded compliance of such monumental directive.

As for the other directives, the state government has already said, they have complied in the year 2006-2007 but after ten years from the their stated compliance, we public are seeing nothing on the ground. The website of the Manipur Police also does not disclose anything about such compliance nor about the establishment of such Commission, etc. and the Manipur police remains where it was – a high handed regime protector with no accountability for their wrongs.

Concluded...