Chandigarh: Police Reform Commission urges Admin to reconstitute PCA

PCA members had written to then UT Administrator VP Singh Badnore about the non-compliance of various orders, judgments and instructions of PCA by the Chandigarh Police.

“Construction of PCA is one of the directives out of seven recommended by Supreme Court of India following the famous Parkash Singh PIL on the police reforms. We give special attention on the construction of PCA from a fresh angle. PCA is a watchdog body, which has constitutional authority to look after criminal complaints against the police personnel. Ironically, earlier the PCA was forwarding the complaints against cops to the police department expecting a fair probe. We observed that if we want a successful PCA, the authority should have its own independent staff to investigate the complaints. The independent staff may include retired cops also. As it is a directive ordered by the Supreme court, no state/UT can be denied to constitute a PCA in their jurisdiction,” said Prof Anil Monga of Centre for Police Administration, Panjab University, who assisted in the PRC.

Sources said through various complaints were received in PCA, there were a few in which the police department had acted on the findings of PCA. In one of such case, UT Police had booked a retired police inspector for accepting a bribe of Rs 1 lakh from a man to recruit him in Chandigarh Police in January, 2019. The order of PCA dates back to November, 2018.