New Delhi: Close on the heels of a report by Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) pointing out non-compliance of Supreme Court’s directive on police reforms by the Centre and the states, noted jurist A.P. Shah and former Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Prakash Singh, the petitioner in the police reforms case in which Supreme Court had in 2006 issued landmark directives to the states, said the apex court itself had not been following up with contempt proceedings against non-compliant states with zeal. They were speaking at the release of a report, “Status of Policing in India Report 2018: A Study of Performance and Perceptions”, brought out by Common Cause and the Lokniti-Programme for Comparative Democracy at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS).The CHRI report had noted that only 18 states had passed new Police Acts since 2006, while others had issued government orders/notifications. Not a single state has incorporated the directives in full conformity with the Supreme Court’s scheme, it pointed out.Shah, a former chief justice of the Delhi high court and former chairperson of the Law Commission, said even after 12 years, when the Supreme Court issued the directives to the states on bringing about police reforms, the implementation had been poor, with only two states complying with the directives.Previous two CJIs did not hear matter“Under the present Chief Justice of India (CJI), the matter has at least been heard four times though there has been no progress. The two previous chief justices had not even heard it,” Justice Shah said, expressing concern at the states bringing in legislations to nullify the impact of the directives issued by the apex court.For his part, Singh, who had served as director general of police of Uttar Pradesh and in the Border Security Force, said the Supreme Court’s judgment in 2006 had provided the framework for reforms, but it was left to the state governments to implement the directives by formulating their own laws.‘States passed laws to circumvent directives’On the states that had passed laws on police reforms, Singh said “unfortunately most of these have to actually legitimise the status quo to circumvent the SC’s directions and monitoring. Not surprisingly the first state to pass the Act was Bihar.”The implementation, Singh said, had also lacked because the apex court did not take up the contempt pleas against the erring states. “The Justice Thomas report in 2008 had expressed ‘complete dismay’ at the non-implementation of the directives, and four years later the Justice Verma Committee formed in the wake of the Nirbhaya case had dedicated 22 pages to thrust on holistic reforms in police while cautioning that they were an absolute must if an atmosphere of security was to be created for women and children.”‘Modi government paying lip-service’Singh also blamed the Narendra Modi government for not being serious about police reforms. “Police reforms are needed to make the country safer for more investments and to ensure its economic progress, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi had also spoken about creating a SMART police — Strict and Sensitive, Modern and Mobile, Alert and Accountable, Reliable and Responsive, Techno savvy and Trained. But the government has not taken necessary steps in this regard.”He also cautioned that as a consequence, the society and legislatures were becoming increasingly criminalised. “While we need to send criminals behind bars, the data shows that their representation in Parliament has grown from 24% to 30%. On reaching 50%, we will be branded a criminal state like Nigeria or Liberia”, said Singh, adding that “police reforms are needed not for the glory of the police but to improve governance.”Former chairperson of Law Commission Justice A.P. Shah speaking at an event to release the report “Status of Policing in India Report 2018: A Study of Performance and Perceptions” in New Delhi. Credit: Gaurav Vivek BhatnagarShah said the “health of police also tells us about the state of governance. When there is no accountability, everything gets compromised. In such times, the rights of the marginalised tend to be undermined and the idea of rule of law soon vanishes.”Pointing out that there had been nearly two dozen official studies on police reforms, Shah said “what is needed is clearly a change in mindset along with resources. For, as of now, “the Raj lives on in the police in India and generally people feel that police has an indifferent attitude,” he added.Shah said the fact that a large number of complaints were not being registered, as about 25% of people are unable to get FIRs filed, acts as a barrier to accessing justice. Moreover, now the standard practice that has emerged is of the police personnel facilitating and compelling complainants to enter into ‘compromises’. However, the police was also not always to blame as the personnel are required to play different roles from regular policing and investigation to traffic management, he said.‘Political control should end’While the idea behind political linkages and reporting to the political establishment was to increase the responsibility of the police towards preventing crime and upholding law, Shah said that political control had ended up impacting the functioning of the force adversely, as transfers and postings are used as tools to control the police. “When it comes to law enforcement and investigation, police should be able to work independently,” he said, adding that police appointment, allocation of work and investigation should not be under the political executive.He also noted that one of the issues not addressed in the study was the discrimination faced by lower ranking officers in the police who are often referred to as “inferior” even in official parlance. No wonder, he said, the dissatisfaction among the lower ranks was high and this is was one of the reasons behind the high level of suicides witnessed among the lower ranks in the police force.Singh said it was encouraging to note that report underlined that “citizens hold moderate level of trust in the police”. Recalling how the observations on the weakness in Indian police made by the first commission on police reforms established under Sir Andrew Frazer and Lord Curzon in 1902-03 still hold true, he said, “the question is why has time stood still for the police”.With the police sliding deeper due to “politicisation and gradual criminalisation”, he said, there was an urgent need for reforms.