Call for people's movement for

police reform

Participants in a three-day seminar on "Police and People: Human Rights Concerns", held at Bangalore under the joint auspices of Vigil India Movement and the Ecumenical Christian Centre, called for a people’s movement to put pressure on the government to initiate police reforms immediately. About 40 persons attended the seminar,.

Rev. Dr. M.J. Joseph, Director of ECC, inaugurated the seminar on August 22, 2003. Dr. P.J. Alexander, former Director General of Police, Kerala, delivered the keynote address on "Legal framework of police process." He examined the structure and functioning of the police in depth and explained how the police could be transformed into an agency to safeguard the basic human rights of the people.

Mr. Bikram Batra (New Delhi) spoke on Custodial Violence, Ms. Gauri Bhopatkar

(Pune) on the Problems of Marginalized Sections, Dr. V.S. Elizabeth (Bangalore) on

Violence against Women, Mr.. Mallela Sheshagiri Rao (Vijayawada) on Police Reforms and Mr. Saji Thomas on the Role of Police in Combating Communal Violence.

Dr. M.V. Ramkumar Ratnam, Mr. Kirity Roy, Mr. G. Subramanian, Mr. Ch. Narendra and Ms. Jansi John served as moderators.

A panel discussion on "What I expect from the police as a citizen" was the highlight of the second day's proceedings. Prof. K. Alexander was the moderator. Ten eminent personalities participated in the discussion.

Advocate J. Alexander expected the police to be independent and impartial. For this the police must be free from political influence. Law and Order should be included on the Concurrent List. Mr. M. Aftab said the police must be the real friend and protector of the people. It must be provided a proper support system. At present training gives importance to physical fitness. This must change. Mr. Jacob Kunjukunju wanted the police to behave decently. They must be aware of human rights. The police force must be corruption–free.

Adv. Raj Kumar said the police must be friendly. Mr. Kirity Roy suggested that law enforcing and investigating should be separated. Police should respect the human rights of everyone. Use of firearms must be restricted. Mr. C. H. Narendra favoured the system of community policing. Mr. Raj Kumar said the police should not to be the agents of the oppressive ruling class. They should be objective in approach.

Adv. Sheshagiri demanded establishment of a State Security Commission as recommended by the National Police Commission. He also said the police should follow all recommendations in the D.K. Basu judgment. Dr. Subhash Patil suggested that the police should be cruel towards the criminals; gentle towards gentlemen and kind to the poor. Prof. K. R. Siddappa wanted police stations to be revamped to become people-friendly. decency to be observed in dealing with criminals; use of abusive languages should be avoided; modernize the police and introduce community policing.

The participants, who divided into groups and held discussions, presented reports on their discussions at the plenary session on the final day. Dr. P.J. Alexander presented a statement, which was adopted by the participants. The seminar ended with a concluding message by Dr. M.J. Joseph.

The following are excerpts from the statement adopted by the participants:

We the participants of the seminar on "Police and People: Human Rights Concerns" issue the following statement to the media, concerned departments in the government, organizations and to all the people concerned.

The theme of the seminar has contemporary relevance and rhymes with the concerns of the ECC and Vigil India Movement, which in short are; Human Rights and Justice particularly for the weaker and marginalized and good governance in the country. In the background of rapid changes taking place in every sphere in our society, the need to provide a responsive, transparent and accountable governing system was felt to be an immediate and urgent need. The call of the President of India, Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, to take the country forward so as to make India a developed country in about two decades is a call that has to be surely heeded and responded promptly.

While the country is making significant strides in many sectors, it is found that efforts to reform and revamp the administration are not being seriously taken up. The police sub-system is deficient and lacking in clear objectives for transforming the police into people-friendly, accountable to law and human rights sensitive. The police are criticized as anti-people, authoritarian, corrupt, politically not neutral, harsh and insensitive to women and other vulnerable sections of the society. The other components of the criminal justice system are similarly dysfunctional. The police functioning in general and their interface with their clientele provide occasions for large-scale violations of human rights. Therefore, the seminar concerned itself with identifying modalities by which the police can be made people-friendly and human rights and civil liberties biased.

The seminar examined the legal framework of police process, custodial violence and implication of the Supreme Court directions in D. K. Basu, the police in relation to marginalized sections, and the role of the police in communal riots and ethnic violence and expectations of the average citizens from the police.

The police work under pre-independence laws. While the criminal laws apparently guarantee some of the human rights concerning personal freedoms and fair trail, they are capable of being applied to deny to the concerned the very same rights. Therefore, there is a strong case for re-writing the criminal laws and the Police Act.

The National Police Commission (1979-1981) in its eighth report had given a model police Act. New police Acts should be enacted on this model. Some of the recommendations of the Justice Mallimath Commission were found ultimately to result in denying human rights to those concerned in police investigation and prosecution.

The police have to be reformed both structurally and functionally to make them people-friendly, accountable to law, empathetic to weaker sections and committed to human rights. The recommendations of the National Police Commission are over two decades old but still relevant to initiate basic police reforms. The recommendations of Rebiero and Padmanabhaiya provide focus for some of the recommendations. There is apparent resistance from various quarters to police reforms and no State has taken the initiative to introduce police reforms. Police reforms have to be assigned national priority. There has to be a people’s movement to press for police reforms and the various sections of the society should put necessary pressure on the government, legislators and all others concerned to initiate a police reform agenda.