SYMPOSIUM ON JUDICIAL REFORMS CONDUCIVE FOR COMMON CITIZENS
Cuttack-2,on 14th of August 2003

TALK BY DR.R. P .SHARMA, D. I. G. OF POLICE, CENTRAL RANGE,
ORISSA, CUTTACK.

Hon'ble Justices, Hon'ble Ex-Speaker of Loka Sabha, the leading Advocates of Cuttack and all the ladies and gentlemen present here. I just now heard some eminent and illustrious speakers in this symposium. However it is my pleasure and privilege to deliver a brief talk on the topic "Role of police in delivering proper justice" before this august gathering. The present criminal justice system in India is considered as a baby of judiciary in common pereption. Judiciary alone does not constitute or bear responsibility for the functional outcome of criminal justice system but there are other agencies, which are equally, if not more, responsible for the proper functioning of criminal justice system. It is an integrated system wherein the investigating agency generally comes in the play from the beginning itself, wherever any crime occurs and is reported. The Hon'ble Supreme Court long back examined the role of Investigating Officer in a case and said that the decision whether to prosecute or not, whether to charge-sheet a case or not to put up for trial, is that of the police officer who is investigating the crime and of no one else. So long as the police as a component of Justice Delivery System acts impartially, fairly, properly and promptly, it plays its due role up to the satisfaction of the people to whom it is ultimately accountable.

After our independence, the great leaders who framed the Constitution were of the view that everybody was equal in the eyes of law and everybody had right to get equal justice. I do not think it necessary to speak about the spirit of our Constitution on this matter .

However, one vital question comes to mind while speaking on such topic, " How far the criminal justice system has delivered justice to the common man ?" Different analysts and experts analyse and answer it differently. But if you ask the common man , he may reply that he has been deceived. I am not here to analyse the causes of "failure" of all the different organs of the criminal justice system but I would focus on the expectation from and role played by the police.

Coming in day-to-day contact with police as the first agency of the criminal justice system , what the society / common citizen expects from it ? What are the primary duties of police towards society? The one sentence answer would be, " protection of life and property of the citizens". Police has to ensure that life and property of the people is secured, rule of law is properly implemented, crime is prevented and criminals are brought to book . The common perception today is that the police has failed badly, if not miserably in its duty . Some analysts may try to highlight the ever-emerging difficult situations and circumstances under which police has to function and face new challenges. But I am speaking broadly from the view point of common man who feels insecure as never before . His faith, trust and confidence in police have gradually dwindled. The credibility of police has gone down to a very low level. A sizeable section of people sees the police as instrument of harassment and atrocity which has scant respect for human rights.

Police needs peoples' assistance and support for its proper functioning. But free-flowing cooperation of the people is a rarity for the police, instead people prefer to totally avoid it. This reflects gross lack of faith and confidence of the people in police. Infact, people in general have not only developed hatred towards police but also are increasingly expressing their hostility against it.

Criminal and antisocial elements no more appear to fear the police. They may commit crime in broad day light with impunity, challenge police openly and circumvent the whole process of law enforcement and justice. Yesterday , I watched in a TV news that member of Parliament of Siwan Constituency in Bihar, involved in about 35 criminal cases and wanted by police in few cases , was seen publically making statements that he would see the DGP Bihar and fix him once he retires, and nobody would be able to protect him then . The Hon' ble M.P, with numerous criminal cases on his head finally surrendered but to me it appeared a mockery of the whole criminal justice system.

There could be several reasons for such a state of affairs, but one major reason I see is the police remaining under the control of executive and in the clutches of political bosses who have increasingly misused or abused it for their own selfish cause . Most of the ills manifested in the police functioning today, find their roots in such political interference and abuse.

An Officer in charge of a police station is vulnerable to extraneous pressures, particularly from the political leaders. There always remains an imminent threat of transfer and other harassments if some officer does not yeild . An ordinary officer seeing the impact brought about by such extraneous powers tends to comply instead of resisting. Realising that his 'survival' depends upon their pleasure; the officer may become servile and subservient to the political powers, largely to protect his small interests like posting at place of choice and avoiding transfer and such practice dilutes the departmental discipline. There may develop a kind of nexus between the politicians and the police officers mutually rewarding to each other and in the process they forget about larger interest of the society.

It is a strange situation wherein the police is under the control of executives and receive instructions from varying kinds of executives/political masters who are not directly accountable to the judiciary but the police is answerable in its investigation and many other functions to the judiciary. All kinds of instructions right or wrong, come from such controlling and/or extraneous authorities and are executed by the police. Those imparting instruction are not directly answerable to the judiciary.

Many judges have commented that whenever police were allowed to function independently without extraneous interference, it performed not only better, it performed excellent. The important point which I am trying to bring home is that police needs to have functional independence and autonomy, if one desires to substantially improve its quality of work. The need of independence of police has been felt by the Hon'ble Supreme Court and also has been highlighted in the Police Reforms Commission,1979. Infact the Police Reforms Commission has proposed several remedial measures to prevent interference with and misuse of the police by illegal and improper orders or pressure from political executive or other extraneous sources.

One important observation which anybody can make is that judiciary has greatly functioned in a fair, impartial and fearless manner in the last 55 years of independence and many a times played important role in preventing other agencies from undesirable/illegal indulgence. It needs no efforts to opine that independence of judiciary has gone a long way in protecting the society and common men's interests. However, proper delivery of justice depends not upon judiciary only but equally depends upon the impartial free and fair functioning of other components like the police and prosecution etc of the criminal justice system.

We generally talk about police reforms, attitudinal change in police, behavioral improvement, quality improvement etc. Through these are important aspects but I feel unless the police is brought out of the clutches of the political master and made independent of executives, all such measures would only bring marginal difference. We have to focus and address the main impediment and make police functionally independent in the manner of judiciary, if we really want to bring any substantial improvement in the role of police in justice delivery system.

Time limit is not permitting me to have any elaborate discussion on this issue. I sum up by reiterating that a mistake was committed by not making the police functionally independent like judiciary and the results are evident in misuse, abuse, ineffectiveness and discredited image of the police. Unless police is insulated against outside interference and given functional autonomy (along with accountability to the law and Constitution) there is little possibility of improvement in police performance as an organ of criminal justice system.