NHRC’s recommendations on Police reforms in the country

Participating in a proceeding before the Supreme Court in the matter of Prakash Singh Vs Union of India, the National Human Rights Commission had recommended the effective insulation of the Investigation Wing of the police from extraneous pulls and pressures. It had also recommended the constitution of a Police Security and Integrity Commission (PSIC) at the State level and more appropriate ways of selecting and ensuring fixity of tenure of the police chiefs in the States in order to improve the quality of policing in the country. The Commission, in its submissions before the Supreme Court, has stated that insulating the police from extraneous political and other pressures would ensure freedom in the operational areas of police investigation, while the setting-up of the PSIC, a non-statutory, advisory and recommendatory authority, would help the State Governments in effectively discharging their superintending responsibilities under the frame-work of law. The PSIC should lay down the broad policy guidelines and directions for the performance of preventive tasks and service oriented functions by the police and should function as an advisory forum for the disposal of representations from police officers who asserted that they are being subjected to illegal orders in the performance of their duties. The Commission had suggested that the PSIC should act as a recommendatory forum for promotion of police officers to the rank of Superintendent of Police and above and also ensure that no premature transfers of these officers are made without prior clearance from the PSIC.

Further, the Commission had recommended the constitution of a ‘District Police Complaints Authority’, a non-statutory body, to deal with complaints from the public of police excesses, arbitrary detention and arrests, false implication in criminal cases and custodial violence. The NHRC had, in addition, recommended the institution of Lay-Visitors for jails and police lock-ups.

The Ribeiro Committee which had been set-up by the Ministry of Home Affairs following the directive of the Supreme Court to review and suggest ways and means for the implementation of the recommendations of the National Police Commission, the Law Commission, NHRC and the Vohra Committee, has endorsed almost all of the recommendations of the National Human Rights Commission.