15 years on, no State or Union Territory in India fully complies with SC's police reforms directive: Report

An analysis by Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, a private watchdog, shows that only six states provide security of tenure for their police chief

Wednesday marks the 15th year of Supreme Court issuing directives for police reforms but Karnataka is the only state in the country that provides its State Security Commission, which is to be set up to ensure that the state government does not exercise "unwarranted influence or pressure" on police, the power to make binding recommendations.

Karnataka along with Arunachal Pradesh also give full power to Police Establishment Board (PEB) established to decide all transfers, postings, promotions and other service-related matters for officers of and below the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Police and make recommendations to the state government on postings and transfers of officers above the rank of DySP among others.

An analysis by Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), a private watchdog, also shows that only six states provide security of tenure for their police chief, only seven provide for independent short-listing of candidates and only 13 allow an internal mechanism to enable police leadership to take decisions on transfers without political interference.

Neither a single state nor union territories comply fully with the directives in true earnest signaling the central government’s non-compliance, the 'Government Compliance with Supreme Court Directive on Police Reforms: An Assessment 2021' report said.

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"The failure to comply with the directives reveals the extent to which elected governments are resisting police reform across the country. Needed checks and balances that the directives seek to instill to make policing more professional and accountable are being stymied in multiple ways," it said.

According to the SC, the State Security Commission (SSC) is to be set up to ensure that the state government does not exercise unwarranted influence or pressure on the police, lay down broad policy guidelines and evaluate the performance of the state police. It is designed to be a buffer between the political executive and police through its policy-making role and wide membership.

The CHRI report said Karnataka is the only state that makes the recommendations of the SSC binding. Other states either do not include any provision on binding recommendations, or make it subject to broad terms like "only to the extent feasible" like in Meghalaya and Himachal Pradesh, or "unless...the government decides to disagree with findings of the authority" as in (Delhi).

"Absence of a categorical articulation of the SSC recommendations being binding on the respective government weakens the body and reduces its role to being merely advisory, rather than policymaking, as intended by the court," the report said.

Twenty-seven out of 28 states have constituted an SSC, either through Police Acts or government orders and Odisha remains the only state yet to establish an SSC. Seven out of 27 states - Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Punjab, Telangana and Tripura – do not include the Leader of the Opposition in the SSC.

When it comes to the two-year tenure and process of appointment of the Director General of Police (DGP), only Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland are the only states that fully comply with the SC directive. Twenty-three states, including Karnataka Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, omit shortlisting by the UPSC and give state governments the sole discretion to select the candidates for the DGP’s post.

On separating law and order from investigation, 12 states — Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal — have failed to comply. Sixteen states, including Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, have taken some measures to separate investigation and law and order duties.

Nine states – Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, West Bengal and Uttarakhand – include serving police officers as its members of the On Police Complaints Authorities. While the court did not specifically prohibit this, including serving officers in an authority mandated to inquire into public complaints against the police undermines the principle of independent external oversight and accountability, the report said.

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