by Police - Bureau of Police Research and Development

The Indian Police Journalis implemented, each State will have its own Act. Thus, the nationalcharacter of the Police Act would be obliterated on the repeal of PoliceSubject and the Centre has no power to enact a National Police Act.I shudder to think that we are soon going to have 31 Police Acts - 30passed by the States and one by the Parliament for the Union Territories.It is not known if the States would adopt the Model Act in its entiretyor would make changes as they deem proper. The latter possibilitycannot be ruled out as the legislative process involves amendmentspolice in the country as a whole? It is time for a serious debate as towhether Police and Public Order should be placed in the ConcurrentList by amending the Constitution or Article 249 should be invokedfor enacting certain laws in “national interest”. In my view, the formercourse is advisable as the Centre is, of necessity, assuming greater andgreater role in dealing with insurgency every passing day and mightneed more laws to be enacted in days to come.Reform WithinSo far, I have been only introducing the topic I meant to discussthe need for self-reform by the police. The politicians who ruledthe country so long have belied our hopes. The intervention by theJudiciary to awaken them had only marginal results. But there is a lotwe can do to change ourselves and we can do it under the presentframework of law and administration. Fortunately, Sardar Patel decidedto continue the IP as the IPS and provided for a selection process thatensured entry of highly-educated young men with impressive recordof academic excellence. It will not be an exaggeration to say that theAll India Services (AIS) draw the best brains of the country through arigorous competitive examination. Such academic excellence may notbe necessary to make a successful Administrator - in fact, there is astrong opinion that this has deprived the Universities of their share offor decision-making. This is not to say that there are no black sheep; the overbearing.January - March, 20139