Governments To Police Reform

New Delhi, 10 April: Central and state governments are required to come clean on police reform by Tuesday 10 April 2007 by submitting affidavits to the Supreme Court that say what they have each done to make reform a reality in their state or territory. The date is one of a number of Court ordered deadlines that the central and state governments need to meet to satisfy a judgment in the longrunning public interest litigation case Prakash Singh v Union of India.

The Prakash Singh case began in 1996, when two retired Director Generals of Police filed a case in the Supreme Court calling for police reform. After ten years of hearings and deliberations, the Court ruled last year that reform must become a reality in India and, earlier this year, set two deadlines for complying with a number of directives it set down to ensure reform. These deadlines have passed and the governments must now have complied with the Supreme Court’s directives.
The sad reality is that while a number of governments have made real progress towards police reform, there are a number of governments who have failed to even attempt to meet the Court’s ruling. This means that they could be found in contempt of court in a hearing set down for July this year. At this hearing, the Court will go through each governments’ affidavits and look at whether they have done everything they had to do under the judgment. There are also a number of states that are partially compliant, or union territories that are relying on the central government to legislate for reform and accountability.

Police reform in India is overdue and the Supreme Court decision has made police reform the reality. Responsibility is now with the central and state governments to move police reform from a reality on paper to a reality for communities – and Tuesday’s deadline will show how much of this responsibility has been shouldered by the governments.

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