Uttarakhand State Police Complaints Authority - Commonwealth ...

importantly, the Act is silent on the nature of powers that vest with the Authority. It does not clearly statewhether the recommendations of the Authority will be binding on the state government. This is inviolation of the Court’s directive, which plainly states that the recommendations of Complaints Authoritiesfor any action “shall be binding” on the government and the police. There is no doubt that the Courtincluded this requirement in light of the experience of other established independent oversight bodieswhose recommendations are routinely ignored by the police and governments, because they do nothave binding powers.Offices and FundingLocated at the posh Race Course Road in Dehradun, the Police Complaints Authority is situated in animposing two-storey, private, rented house. While the ground floor is occupied by the secretarial staff,the Chairperson and the members have their offices on the first floor. Given the limited number of thestaff of the Authority, the present accommodation appears sufficient. However, there is no separateroom for waiting complainants or policemen who come to depose. The office only has one landlinetelephone and no separate dedicated fax line. It does not have a website either. The state police websitementions other relevant web links such as the State Lokayukta and Home Ministry but does not mentionthe Police Complaints Authority as one of the bodies where complaints could be made againstthe police.In terms of funding, the Authority is provided with a budget by the state government. This has its ownseparate component in the state budget. 23 In an interview with CHRI, the Chairman of the Authoritystated that the Authority had not faced any financial difficulties till date. In the first year, the Authorityreceived a substantial grant of over Rs. 50 lakhs. The expenditure was a little over Rs. 41 lakhs. In thefirst year the Authority needs to publicise its presence, its work and its mandate and since the fundswere available this could be easily done. Despite the availability of funds, the Authority has not thoughtof hiring the services of investigators to conduct independent inquiries. Compared to the other fivefunctional Authorities, the Uttarakhand Authority is far better off in terms of finances. The Authorityneeds to capitalise on this and think of novel methods to enhance its working and efficacy. If it fails todo so, it will only have itself to blame.Depicted below is the budget allotted to the Authority and the expenses it incurred for 2008-2009 and2009-2010 (in rupees):YearGrantExpenditureBalance2008-2009 50,65,000 41,02,797 9,62,2032009-2010 100,05,000 43,64,830 56,40,170From the table, it is quite clear that the budget allocation for 2009-2010 has been doubled from theprevious year. The balance amount is a phenomenal Rs. 56 lakhs which means that the expenditure ofthe Authority is less than 50 per cent of the total grant.COMPLAINTS AUTHORITY 15