Police Act 2008 - Kerala Police

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2 Government and Assembly; has to be accountable to the law; has to be vested with sufficient authority to discharge its responsibilities; has to be enabled to respond promptly; has to be subject to proper scrutiny and discipline; has to cause minimum possible hardship to anyone coming into contact with the system; has to be responsive to the complaints of citizenry; has to provide for mechanisms by which persons adversely affected can get impartial justice; has to have mechanisms to check misuse of authority etc. How far we have succeeded is for others to judge. I place on record my thanks to Dr K. Sukumaran Nair who retired from service as DGP while he was the Chairman of this Committee as well as to Sri Varghese George who retired as SP while he was a member of this Committee. The preliminary report, covering the points highlighted in the directive of the Hon’ble Supreme Court, was formulated when they both were part of this Committee in April 2007. I am to thank Sri Raman Srivastava, Director General of Police, Kerala for affording this Committee all co-operation and for placing the resources of the Department at our disposal. I also thank all the fellow members of the Committee for their intense and sincere participation in the deliberations and for their contributions to the drafting process, but for which this task could not have been completed in time. JACOB PUNNOOSE Chairman, Police Act Review Committee
3 A NEW POLICE ACT FOR KERALA – WHY The Kerala Police Act 1960 unified the police systems existing in the different parts of Kerala. The Act was substantially the same as the Indian Police Act of 1861. The structures prescribed under the Act were based on the conditions prevailing in India in the year 1858, when the British Crown took over the governance of India from the East India Company after the War of Independence in 1857. The police structure of 1861 was meant for a society in which citizens did not enjoy Freedom. None had the right to criticise police. The relationship of the Police to the Citizen was the same as that between the State and the Citizen then – i.e. the relationship between the Ruler and the Subject. The role of the police, unstated but implicit, was to uphold this position. Police was to ensure Security, but without Freedom for the Citizen. The British Indian Police discharged this role with admirable efficiency. Total police dominance over the Citizen was the foundation on which the edifice of efficiency was built. That is why shouting slogans against the Police came to be rightly perceived as an act of courage and an assertion of freedom by the average Indian agitator. The advent of democracy changed the matrix of policing. Total Police Dominance over the citizen violates the essence of democracy. The new challenge was to ensure Security with Freedom for the Citizen. The old system had no need to cater for criticism of the police by the citizen, activities of elected representatives, periodic change of those who wield political power, protests by a democratic opposition, a free and critical fourth estate or the fundamental rights of citizens. Surprisingly, in the initial years of our Democracy, there was no realisation that the task of “Ensuring Security with Freedom for the Citizen” was fundamentally different from that of “Ensuring Security without Freedom”. “Rule of Law”, in practice, implies one thing in an Autocracy - and another in a Democracy. As we mature as a democracy, this inconsistency is rendering police work more difficult, public dissatisfaction with police more widespread, citizen co-operation with the police rarer and the sense of security of the public more fragile. Political control of the police is the norm in every known democracy right from the municipal to the national level. But the lack of proper definition of either the Police – Politician interface or the Police – Ruling
Page 1: 1 FOREWORD The preliminary draft of
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55 e) is an office bearer of any so
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101. Police Officers not to engage
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59 a) in which a police officer is
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61 b) Have the same powers, privile
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63 of procedural benefits relating
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65 9. In case any Criminal Court, a
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67 115. Police Establishment Board:
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69 119. Police Associations: The Go
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71 b) they may refer the matter to
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73 Provided that this limitation sh
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75 Provided that nothing in this se
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77 j) conveys through the streets a
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79 the same, shall be deemed illega
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Police Act 2008 - Kerala Police

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