The High Court of Karnataka on Thursday directed the Chief Secretary to personally peruse all the affidavits and undertakings filed before the Supreme Court and the High Court by the State on establishing police complaints authorities (PCAs) and the orders passed by the courts, and submit a plan of action by March 31 to make the PCAs functional.
Also, the court indicated that the Chief Secretary would have to be personally present before the court on April 4 if the plan of action to be submitted by him failed to convince the court.
Justice A.N. Venugoapal Gowda passed the interim order after noticing lethargic attitude of the State in making the PCAs functional despite several assurances given to the courts by the State as well directions issues by the courts.
The court also wondered how could the public approach the State PCA, which is housed inside the Vikasa Soudha, situated next to the Vidhana Soudha, entry to which is restricted, while asking the government counsel to ensure that the PCAs were located in a place having easy access to the public.
Observing that the conduct of the government leads to suspicion, the court said that the government wants to stonewall the PCAs from functioning and protect police officials by ensuring that no complaint was received against them. The court said it appears that the mindset of the government was not to take the directions issued by the courts with seriousness.
Also, the court noticed that the State government, in September 2013, had filed an affidavit before the Supreme Court stating that the State PCA and the district PCAs were constituted for doing full-time job of looking into complaints against police officials.
However, even as on date, more than two years after filling the affidavit before the apex court, not a single PCA had been set up on a full-time basis, the court observed.
