The Hindu : New Delhi News : How Union Ministry administers Delhi police

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Saturday, Sep 08, 2007
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New Delhi

How Union Ministry administers Delhi police

Information sought under RTI triggers a new debate on how complaints against police officers are treated, says Devesh K. Pandey

Though several measures have been taken to bring about transparency in the functioning of the Delhi police, much still remains to be done regarding complaints lodged against police officers. A questionnaire recently filed under the Right to Information Act by an activist, Dev Ashish Bhattacharya, seeking details on complaints received by the Union Home Ministry against the Delhi police has triggered a new debate on how complaints are treated.

Mr. Bhattacharya had asked the Home Ministry about the number of petitions filed against the Delhi police in the past five years, how many of them had finally been disposed of, and how many were still pending. He had also sought details of the cases in which the petitioners were given relief and the Delhi police was indicted after an enquiry. Mr. Bhattacharya had also asked the Ministry to explain the steps through which the complaints were processed.

“The reply came as a complete surprise to me. Though the Ministry was quick to respond, it came up with the revelation that no record of complaints against the Delhi police was being maintained,” says Mr. Bhattacharya.

The reply stated that the “the petitions received in this Ministry are being forwarded to the Delhi police and as regards the number of petitions finally disposed of or pending and the number of cases in which petitioners were given relief is also not available”.

Mr. Bhattacharya says the reply makes amply clear that the Ministry does not have an institutionalised procedure to crosscheck the fate of the petitions. “It means that there is no proper system of inspection in place to find what action has been taken. In such circumstances, it is not clear how the Ministry administers the Delhi police despite the fact that it is responsible for the transfers and postings of police officers on the basis of their past records,” says Mr. Bhattacharya.

As the questionnaire pertained to the Delhi police, it was forwarded to its Vigilance Branch. Interestingly, the reply by the Public Information Officer of the Branch also had little to offer. Though the officer conceded that various types of petitions against police personnel were being sent by the Home Ministry, he said no consolidated data was available with the office.

The officer said most of the complaints received by the Vigilance Branch from the Home Ministry had been disposed of. “If the office does not maintain a record of complaints forwarded by the Home Ministry, what evidence on paper do they have to show action taken on those complaints?” asks Mr. Bhattacharya, adding that with the advent of Internet networking maintaining records is not a big deal.

According to former Delhi Police Commissioner Ajai Raj Sharma, a mechanism to document all the complaints should be in place as is the norm in Government offices. The complaints should then be sent for detailed enquiries if found authentic prima facie. The status of the enquiries should be monitored to bring in accountability to the system. In case the enquiry report is not satisfactory, it should be sent back for further action. The most important aspect for any enquiry is that it should be conducted in a time-bound manner and in such a way that it becomes clear that efforts have really been made to bring out the truth.

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