NHRC for major police and prison reforms

The NHRC suggested the effective insulation of the investigating wing of police and constitution of a five-member “police security and integrity commission” at the state level. It has also recommended more appropriate ways of selecting and ensuring fixity of tenure for director generals of police, constitution of a district police complaints’ authority, institution of “lay visitors” forjails and police lock-ups and improvement in the mode of appointing prosecutorial personnel at all levels.

The Commission has stressed the importance of observing the UN body of principles for the protection of all persons under any form of detention and imprisonment and the UN standard minimum rules for the treatment of prisoners. The NHRC observed that certain key recommendations of the National Expert Committee on Women Prisoners which met under the chairmanship of Justice V R Krishna Iyer in 1986-87, should be followed with greater diligence.

To reduce the enormous burden of cases on criminal courts, the Commission said a system of honorary judicial magistrates on the lines of the institution of “recorders and assistant recorders” in Britain should be initiated in the country. The report stated that under this system trained and experienced lawyers would work on part-time basis, on specific number of days in a year, to deal with and dispose of a large number of cases involving minor offences.

TheCommission has emphasised the need for a massive decriminalisation so that many of the wrongs which are now given the undeserved status of “crime” are dealt as compoundable civil wrongs.