A day after the Madras High Court directed the Tamil Nadu Director-General of Police to explain whether the ‘orderly’ system had been abolished in 1979 and, if so, how it was still continuing, the DGP asked the same question to all senior police officers in the State on Tuesday. In an urgent communication that sought reply within 24 hours, the DGP wrote to senior police officers, including all Police Commissioners/Superintendents of Police, seeking details of the number of personnel working in the residence of police officers, including those retired from service, and asked them to reply by e-mail.
Soon after the note got circulated in the social media, journalists, who were members of WhatsApp groups, were bombarded with messages from police constables who gave details of personnel working as orderlies in the residences of senior officers across the State.
The issue stems out of an order of the Madras High Court in the G. Anandan and others versus the State of Tamil Nadu, in which it was recommended to the government to constitute a commission/committee headed by a retired High Court Judge to look into the grievances of the police personnel.
No action taken
Noting that nothing had been done in the past six years even though the order was passed on July 2, 2012, the court, while hearing another criminal original petition filed by a policeman, pointed to desertions and suicides of police personnel in the force and said postponing the appointment of the commission/committee was not in the interest of the police as well as the public.
Police personnel and vehicles being deployed for the personal use of the family of police officers is a common sight, if the vehicles parked on residential premises are any indication.
“Police vehicles dropping/picking children from schools/colleges and parked at malls/cinema theatres etc is happening almost on a daily basis. This practice has been in vogue over the years...it has become a matter of right for police officers to engage constables at home for personal work,” says a senior IPS officer.
In the past, some efforts were taken by DGPs K.P. Jain, K. Ramanujam and Ashok Kumar to reverse the trend of orderly system. Mr. Kumar even held meetings to recall the police constables serving in the residence of officers. But the missions failed since none cooperated.
Thousands of police personnel are drawn under a category called on duty (OD) from the Tamil Nadu Special Police, Armed Reserve and local police. The purpose is to deploy them to special units such as the Crime Branch CID, Economic Offences Wing and Special Task Force that don’t have strength of their own.
“It is from this OD list that police constables are deployed at the residence of officers to attend to personal work such as dropping children at schools and colleges. We hear that more than a dozen policemen work at the residence of at least three ADGPs. Except a few, almost all the officers have orderlies at home,” the official, who requested anonymity, said, adding that a perusal of the OD list, mobile tower locations, CCTV footage and call details record would prove the point beyond contention.
Threat perspective
Former DGP and Mylapore MLA R Nataraj says the system of orderly should not be seen as an abuse of office alone since there were genuine reasons to have policemen at home. It was not correct to say that personnel deployed at the residence of police officers do household work.
Even if a police driver dropped some officer’s children at school, the element of threat faced by the officer should be taken into consideration, he said.
“Many police officers take stringent action against rowdy elements and detain them under the Goondas Act. Gangsters get killed in police encounters. There is an element of risk due to threats emanating from anti-social elements. There needs to be a policeman at home to vet visitors and attend to phone calls. Even I faced threats while in service...we detained an average of 1,500 suspects under the Goondas Act in 2003-06 in Chennai city,” Mr. Nataraj said.
The orderly system was abolished by an order on September 5, 1979, in which the then Home Secretary said “the question of abolishing the orderly system in the police department has been engaging the attention of the Government for the past sometime. The subject was discussed in the Chief Minister’s conference held at New Delhi on June 6,1979 and it was unanimously decided that the orderly system should be dispensed with forthwith…”
