The Bombay High Court on Wednesday rapped the State government for not constituting the police complaint authorities, which were to start functioning by October 15.
A Division Bench of Justice Naresh Patil and Justice P.D. Naik was hearing a criminal writ petition filed by Bommer Limbadri Vithal, which sought constitution of the State Police Complaint Authority and the Division Level Police Complaint Authority as per the provisions under the Maharashtra Police Act, 1951.
The Acting Advocate General, Additional Chief Secretary (Home), Principal Secretary (Finance), and a secretary from the Chief Minister’s Secretariat were present in the court. When the court asked when the committees were going be functional, it was informed that the State committees will be operational within six weeks while three locations have been identified for the district-level committees.
On May 23, 2015, the State had announced the appointment of a retired judge to head the State-level authority. It had also given names of two retired additional director generals and two Indian administrative services officers to be part of the authority.
In 2008, the State government had issued a resolution for constituting both the authorities. In the last hearing, the court had said that it is unfortunate that the State had failed to do so. The assistant public prosecutor had said that the file for constitution of the authorities has been pending with the finance department for the last four months.
