A.S. Pachhapure, Chairman, Karnataka Police Complaint Authority, has said that without being accorded disciplinary powers to take action against erring police officials, the objective of the authority to make the police system effective would get defeated.
Speaking at a programme to create awareness about the authority and its powers organised by the authority and the District Legal Services Authority on the District Court premises here on Tuesday, he felt that there was a need for the government to accord more powers to the authority.
“We have placed our demand before the government; however, no action has been taken yet,” he said.
Mr. Pachhapure said that in the absence of judicial powers, the authority could only conduct inquiries against erring police officials and submit reports to the government for taking action. “But it is possible that the government may not act on the recommendations which would ultimately defeat the objective of setting up the authority on the direction of the Supreme Court,” he said.
Elaborating the type of complaints the authority can receive, he said that while the district-level authority headed by the respective Deputy Commissioners could receive complaints of non-serious misconduct against constables to the rank of Deputy Superintendents of Police, the State authority could accept complaints of all serious cases of misconduct against constables to the highest ranked police official.
He said that serious misconduct means custodial death of an arrested person, rape inside the police station, causing serious injuries to the arrested persons and wrongful confinement.
“People could file complaints without even revealing their identities before the authority. The authority also enjoys suo motu powers to register complaints based on media reports or information reaching it through anonymous sources,” Mr. Pachhapure said.
He made it clear that the objective of the authority was not to harass or demoralise the Police Department but to take action against erring officials for bringing in transparency in their functioning.
He said that the authority has asked police officials to ensure that information about the authority was displayed in all police stations for public awareness. “Besides spreading awareness among the people, such information will send a strong signal to the police that there is some authority monitoring their activities. This would only help police officials not to violate the law,” he said.
Member of the authority M.R. Kamble, Principal District and Sessions Judge H.B. Muktha, Deputy Commissioner K.B. Shivakumar, Superintendent of Police Kuldeep Jain and District Bar Association president Iranna Gali were present.
