by Police - Bureau of Police Research and Development

The Indian Police Journalthe NPC Report was doomed to die an unnatural death once theperpetrators were back.The sincerity of the political leaders ruling the country in implementingpolice reforms is comparable to their sincerity in unearthing blackmoney stashed in foreign banks: go on making endless speeches anddo nothing. After a decade of Government inaction in implementingthe recommendations of the NPC, two desperate retired DsGP soughtsalvation through the Supreme Court way. This was hardly a matterfor the court to decide, but the court had of late assumed a new roleof making up for the inadequacies of the Executive in the guise ofPIL as it has been already doing for the Legislature. One wonderswhat the proactive court was doing during the Emergency to upholdthe Rule of Law - holding that even citizen’s Right to Life remainssuspended during Emergency! The bureaucracy and the police “knelt”when asked only to “bend” as they had no statutory protection, butwhy did the Judiciary, with all its independence intact and with themighty Contempt Law in force, choose to go down on its knees? Theproclamation imposing Emergency signed by the President in 1975was unconstitutional as the advice was not tendered to him by theCouncil of Ministers. It was done only by the Hon'ble Prime Minister.answer only if a Judicial Reforms Commission is ever set up to go intothe functioning of the Judiciary. But who will judge the Judges? If at allsuch a Commission is ever contemplated, it should be headed by aneminent person from outside the Judiciary and most of the membersThe Supreme Court did act in Prakash Singh case with its customarypromptitude. The order came in September 2006, a decade after theand the Padmanabhaiah Committee set up by it. There were sevendirections to the Centre and the States for implementation by 31 stMarch, 2007, but how many of them have been actually compliedwith is known to all. The Centre also set up the Police Act DraftingCommittee under the Chairmanship of the eminent Jurist, SoliSorabjee, to draft a new Model Police Act, though a Model Act wasalready prepared by the NPC. The Committee came up with the ModelPolice Act, 2006 which was sent to the States to enact their own Act.How many States have complied with is not known. If this direction8 January - March, 2013