Eight years on and police reforms still a distant reality. Faced with such a scenario, the Supreme Court on Tuesday asked States to focus on the goal of segregating crime investigation from law and order duties, which was a vital need for the society and public at large.
Addressing the States on a petition filed by former DGP Prakash Singh, the apex bench of Justices TS Thakur, C Nagappan and Adarsh Goel said, “The direction regarding separation of law and order from investigation function could be given priority.”
Although this was one of the reforms proposed by the court while pronouncing the landmark decision on police reforms in 2006, the bench said, “We see in murder cases handled by police officers that due to faulty investigation there are several deficiencies found in investigation. This is one crucial direction that could be given priority.”
Singh, who was assisted by his lawyer Prashant Bhushan, informed the court that following the 2006 verdict, every attempt was made by the States to subvert implementation of the SC order. With a contempt petition moved by Singh against the erring States, Singh pointed out that not a single State had till date constituted State Security Commission, Police Establishment Board to deal with police transfer and postings, and Police Complaints Authority to deal with complaints against cops.
The other directions related to fixed tenure for senior police officers and segregating of law and order from crime investigation functions of police.
The bench told Singh that the experience all these years indicated that no headway was made with regard to police reforms. “We are trying to fix priority by getting something that directly affects common man.” Bhushan urged the Court to consider forming Committees at state level headed by High Court judge to monitor implementation of the Court order.
The bench decided t hear the matter on August 26, asking the petitioner to prepare a detailed note on how the matter had travelled in Court through the two decades since the PIl was first filed in Court.