Increasing police manpower in Delhi: Centre raises money concern, court says do it

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The bench of Justice Badar Durrez Ahmed and justice Sanjeev Sachdeva noted there had been “three or four rounds” over the last three years as the files regarding proposals to enhance the strength of the Delhi Police had been “shuttling” between the Delhi Police, home ministry and finance ministry.

“There are austerity instructions… we are not creating posts unless absolutely required,” Watal told the court. He also informed the court the finance ministry had asked the home secretary to “form a committee” to discuss “rationalising” the proposal so that “a more efficient and less costly” proposal can be created by “using technology” instead of manpower.

“You are worried about expenditure concerns but citizens of Delhi are worried about their security,” commented the bench, which asked the Centre to “pull out money from somewhere” to increase the number of police personnel.

The court accepted the argument that increasing use of technology would cut down on manpower, but commented that better technology required “properly trained criminal investigators”.

Responding to the finance secretary’s submission that there was “no study” to show there was any requirement to separate the crime investigation units from the law and order work of the police, the bench commented that “years of experience on the bench” had shown that the burden on the police to handle general law and order as well as crime investigation was leading to “botched investigations”. “You don’t need a separate study on this. We are telling you. Any lawyer here can tell you,” said the bench.

Delhi Legal Services Authority OSD S S Rathi informed the court there were over 18,500 proclaimed offenders in the city who had not been caught by the police due to “shortage of manpower”.

The bench asked the Centre to hold a meeting between the home ministry, finance ministry and the Delhi Police, and file a status report by November 14 on the decision.

“Enhancing of personnel may be undertaken in a phased manner,” said the court.

The submissions were made during a hearing on a PIL taken up suo motu by the court after the December 16, 2012, gangrape. The police had earlier informed the court there was a need to increase the number of police personnel, as well as improve the forensic science laboratories to ensure proper investigation of cases of crimes against women.