Khaki clean-up

Among the innumerable pieces of fossilised legislation in the country is the Police Act of 1861. That this law has remained unchanged over 145 years 8212; give or take a few amendments 8212; is testament to the unreformed nature of the Indian police force. Innumerable police commissions have been set up, and innumerable worthy suggestions made, but the executive8217;s inability 8212; or unwillingness 8212; to bring the institution up to scratch could not have been more obvious. There would be many in the corridors of power who would find the Supreme Court8217;s order on police reform irksome, an interference even in the realm of the executive. But the court had little choice, given the record on this score of successive governments.

The primary reason for the studied inertia on the part of those who ruled the country is simple enough to understand. The cornerstone of police reform is the principle of police autonomy. Over the years the powerful institutions of law and order have been bent to conform to executive will and convenience. The Supreme Court hopes to address this by setting up a security commission in every state, which would function as a buffer between the police and the state and which would be responsible for administering the police. This is not a new suggestion incidentally. The Second Report of the National Police Commission had asked for precisely such a body. Securing police autonomy should necessarily start with securing the terms of service of those who take the major decisions within the police force. One of the time-tested ways of intimidating senior police officials was to deploy the threat of transfer or suspension. On this, too, the Supreme Court has spoken up: state DGPs and IGPs will now have fixed tenures of two years.

Among the plethora of issues that the high-profile Jessica Lal case threw up was the urgent need to protect the integrity of the investigation process. In the way of the Jessica Lal judgment earlier this year, these columns had argued for the investigation activities of the police to be kept separate from those involving law and order. The Supreme Court has ordered precisely such a separation. The court has acted. It is now for the executive to take its order extremely seriously, and in as urgent a manner as possible.