CHAPTER-I
THE PREAMBLE
Present Situation
1.1 Police
performance in India today is under close review and critical assessment by a
demanding public in far greater measure than at any time in the past. Increasing
crime, rising population, growing pressure of living accommodation, particularly
in urban areas, violent outbursts in the wake of demonstrations and agitations
arising from labour disputes, agrarian unrest, problems and difficulties of
students, political activities including the cult of extremists, enforcement of
economic and social legislation, etc., have all added new dimensions to police
tasks in the country and tended to bring the police in confrontation with the
public much more frequently than ever before. Functioning under the constraints
and handicaps of an outmoded system, police performance has undoubtedly fallen
short of public expectation. It will be relevant to recall here that the Police
Commission of 1860 had observed that the organised police as proposed by, them
would be "politically more useful"!-para 19 of the forwarding letter
in September, 1860. The present culture of the police system appears a
continuation of what obtained under the British regime when the police
functioned ruthlessly as an agent for sustaining the Government in power. In
public estimate the police appears as an agency more to implement and enforce
the objectives of the Government in power as distinct from enforcing law as such
as an independent and impartial agency. The dividing line between the objectives
of Government as such on one side and the interests and expectations of the
ruling political party as such on the other side gets blurred in actual
practice, and the image of police as an impartial law enforcement agency suffers
in consequence. In this situation police find it difficult to play their lawful
role and make their performance acceptable to the people at large. In the
perception of the people, the egregious features of police are-politically
oriented partisan performance of duties, brutality, corruption and inefficiency,
degrees of which vary from place to place and person to person. The basic and
fundamental problem regarding the police today is how to make them function as
an efficient and impartial law enforcement agency fully motivated and guided by
the objectives of service to the public at large, upholding the Constitutional
rights and liberty of the people. It would be useful at this stage to look back
over the pages of the history of the Indian Police and trace the sequence of
events and policies that have led to the present situation.
History
1.2
The Indian Police system and structure as presently organised are
essentially based on an Act 118 years old-Police Act, 1861. The working of
police was last gone into at the all India level 77 years back by the Indian
Police Commission of 1902-3. They found the police far from efficient, defective
in training and organisation, and one which was generally regarded as
"corrupt and oppressive." The Commission concluded that "the
police force throughout the country is in a most unsatisfactory condition, that
abuses are common everywhere, that this involves great injury to the people and
discredit to the Government, and that radical reforms are urgently necessary.
These reforms will cost much; because the department has hitherto been starved;
but they must be effected." (Para 30) What the Police Commission said in
1903 appears more or less equally applicable to the conditions obtaining in the
police force today !
1.3
The primary problem that faced the police in those years was crime, not
the type of public order crimes that get committed today in the wake of
demonstrations and agitations, but crimes against persons and property committed
by individuals or groups (such as Thuggi) and prompted by motives of pilfering,
plundering, enmity or dispute. Maintenance of public order was not much of a
problem then. An authoritarian police under an imperialist regime enforced
draconian laws ruthlessly to deal with any public order situation with
relatively small number of police personnel. But the task of investigating
professional crimes required personnel of a better calibre and perception. The
1902 Commission was primarily concerned with reorganising the police structure
for evolving such a cadre of investigating officers of the rank of Sub-Inspector
to secure efficient and honest investigation of crimes. The reforms proposed by
that Commission were not aimed at improving the quality of-performance at the
level of the Constables who were relegated to the background in field work. The
following remarks of the that Commission give an indication of their approach to
the Constabulary :
"In
regard to Constables, the Commission are of the opinion that the proposals made
by some witnesses to double or treble their pay are due to forgetfulness of the
principle that the more important and responsible duties of the police ought not
to be entrusted to this class of officers. Escort, guard, and patrol work,
limited powers of arrest, the suppression of disturbances (under orders), the
regulation of traffic and the like, are the duties they should be called on to
perform. They should never be themselves entrusted with the investigation of
offences or the performance of other duties of a similarly responsible
character, though the investigating officer may avail himself of their
assistance under his direct supervision and orders. The worst abuses have arisen
from permitting Constables and Head Constables to conduct the investigation of
offences. No abuse calls more urgently for reform. Constables are not a suitable
agency even for the performance of the beat duties ordinarily entrusted to them.
The great principle to be borne in mind is that duties requiring the exercise of
discretion and judgment should not be entrusted to the lowest class of officers,
from whom such qualifications cannot reasonably be expected :
the
duties of a Constable should not be above his class." (Para 53)
The
Commission summed up that "the duties of a Constable should be of a
mechanical character." [Summary of Recommendations (14) ]
1.4
Between 1903 and 1977-the period of 74 years between the submission of
its report by the last Indian Police Commission and the appointment of the
present one-many important changes have taken place in the social, economic and
political life of the country. Some of these changes have a direct bearing on
the role of the police. By far the most important single event that has occurred
since 1903 is the fact that India emerged free from foreign rule and is today
over 31 years old as an independent nation. The freedom movement was preceded by
a long period of almost 25 years of social reform based on a new liberal
philosophy which the educated Indians had largely borrowed from the West. This
liberal philosophy emphasised democracy in political life, a measure of equality
in social life and a belief in rationality. This liberal basis for the
organisation of the freedom movement was very important because in its absence.
it would not have been possible to mobilise the various segments of Indian
society into the nationalist movement. Secularism and the promise of equality
were important in getting different religious and caste groups to work together
toward a common goal. After 1930 the egalitarian message of liberalism was
further underlined by socialism. In the socialist doctrine it became much more
militant and this appealed to the young people who were drawn into the
nationalist movement after the 1930s.
1.5 The
freedom movement held out certain promises and raised the aspirations of the
poor. One of the major causes of tensions that we see in our society today
appears to be our failure to redeem the promises that were made. prior to
independence and were incorporated in the constitution in the form of Directive
Principles and the Preamble. The Preamble, the Directive Principles and the
Fundamental Rights between them promise an egalitarian, secular, democratic
society. The reality that we experience around us does not wholly correspond to
this promise.
1.6
There are also other changes that have been taking
place which have made the fulfilment of these promises more and more difficult.
The most important of these is the rapid and phenomenal growth of population
between 1903 and 1947 and more particularly between 1947 and 1977. The
population of our country has doubled since 1941 and nearly trebled since 1911.
This has increased the acuteness of the problems that arise out of scarcity in a
developing society.
1.7
It is common knowledge that while our population has grown, our gross
national product has not kept pace with it. This has meant increasing poverty
for the mass of the people. While we speak of a society which promises
increasing equality among people, the economic reality is that the inequalities
have actually grown. We have got rid of foreign rule and we have established a
liberal democracy, but we are still a poor society divided by many languages and
religions as also by caste and class distinctions. The increasing acuteness of
the economic problems makes it difficult for us to develop any measure of
political consensus on the path that we should follow to attain the kind of a
society that we have promised ourselves.
1.8
Undoubtedly, there are many things that have been achieved even in the
economic realm. We have laid down the infrastructure of a major industrial
development. We have also witnessed what has been referred to as the green
revolution and we have more than doubled our annual food crop to attain a
plausible self-sufficiency in terms of food.
1.9
However, poverty surrounds us on all sides and the condition of the poor
seems to be getting worse instead of getting better with every passing year.
Recent estimates by economists seem to indicate that about 50% of the population
both in the rural as well as in the urban areas live below the poverty line, the
poverty being calculated on the basis of minimum food requirements. Increasing
population, increasing poverty, increasing inequality have, therefore, nullified
in a sense our achievements during the last three decades of independence. They
have given rise to a sense of frustration.
1.10
There are also other factors which have aggravated the difficult
situation from the social and political points
of view. One of these is that though we now have our own elected representatives
ruling the country, the
relationship between the government and the people has not basically changed.
The attitudes of the elected representatives as well as the government servants
towards the common man appear to the latter as the attitude of the ruler towards
the ruled. This is probably because of the great gap that divides the mass of
people from the elite that occupy offices. Since the common man is inarticulate,
at least in terms of reading and writing, and he is not organised, except in the
urban areas, in any effective form, he finds that an attitude of outward
submissiveness is his best strategy for survival.
1.11
But, even in the rural areas, the spirit of conflict and confrontation is
gradually growing. While the formal statements of Governments still support the
special compensatory facilities that are to be provided to the Scheduled Castes
and Scheduled Tribes as envisaged in the Constitution, the executive actions of
Governments do not always vigorously follow these policy pronouncements. Besides
the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes specified in a Presidential
Notification, we have the category of "Backward Classes", notified and
amplified by the State Governments from time to time. The consensus that seems
to have existed at the time of independence about the identity of backward
classes based on their socially, economically or educationally backward
condition, has gradually diminished since then. Increasing pressures of certain
castes and communities to get listed as 'backward' and their asking for
privileges comparable to
those that have been granted to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes are
creating a new area of tension in some States.
1.12
The landless agricultural labourer is not yet an organised political
force, but in some pockets the extreme leftist groups are providing leadership
to this segment of the community. This has led to revolts, confrontations on the
part of the landless and to concerted action on the part of governments, which
in manycases appear to represent the land-owning upper castes, to put down the
least signs of protest.
1.13
In the urban areas the problems are of a different category. Gradually
India has built up one of the most extensive industrial infrastructures among
the developing countries. However, the conditions of the industrial workers are
not very much better than they were prior to independence. In terms of real
wages their incomes have not registered any substantial rise. In fact, in some
cases, economists argue that the real 0'
incomes of industrial workers have fallen. It is true that despite this
situation the industrial worker in the organised sectors of industries is in a
somewhat privileged position as compared with the rural agricultural worker or
workers in the unorganised sectors of industries. But the industrial worker
compares himself not with the agricultural labourer but rather with the
white-collared individual who sits in the offices of Government and of business
firms and with the worker in more privileged areas such as banks, insurance
companies
1.14
Another area of strife in the urban area is around universities. Our
system of education at one time admirably served the purpose for which it was
created, namely, to prepare people for jobs in Governments. But the number of
students in the universities has increased to a point that no Government can
possibly provide jobs for all of them within the governmental bureaucracy.
Except for those who are equipped as engineers, doctors, architects and other
professionals, the rest of the students who graduate from universities are not
capable of doing any work other than desk work and there is a limited demand for
this category of people. The net result is that more and more students find that
their education does not lead them to any jobs. The sense of economic insecurity
and the sense of irrelevance of what they do in the class room is at the root of
the crisis in the university system and the law and order problems arising
therefrom.
1-15
There is a decreasing political consensus and an
increasing sense of loss of direction about how to achieve the kind of society
that we have envisaged in our Constitution. The absence of a consensus on the
rules of the game is at the root of all our problems of law and order. When
people lose faith in the possibility of seeking solutions to their problems
through democratic and constitutional means, they inevitably tend to resort to
means of mass protests and mass agitations. So long as people register their
protests through normal constitutional and peaceful action, the police do not
come into the picture, but the moment people begin to deviate from
constitutional methods and act violently in defiance of law, the police are
required to act. The increasing number of riots, whether in the universities, in
industries or between religious groups or more recently between caste groups in
the rural areas, are indicative of the growing sense of impatience on the part
of the people and the increased and deeper involvement of the police for
containing the situation.
1.16
Agitationist politics have now become a prominent feature of the
country's public life and agitations are becoming more coercive than
communicative in their approach. Public order incidents arising from labour
agitations were 2776 in 1968, 2889 in 1970, 3243 in 1972, 2938 in 1974 and 2653
in 1977. The number of workers involved in such incidents has increased. While
3243 incidents of 1972 had involved 1,736,737 workers, 2653 incidents of 1977
involved 1,874,710 workers. Number of incidents arising from student unrest were
2665 in 1968, 3861 in 1970, 6365 in 1972 and 7520 in 1977. Incidents arising
from communal clashes were 321 in 1971, 240 in 1972, 242 in 1973, 248 in 1974,
205 in 1975, 169 in 1976 and 188 in 1977.
Quantitative and qualitative changes in the duties of Constables
1.17
With the transition from foreign rule to independent, socialist,
democratic and welfare State, the style of police handling of public order
situations has had to change from an aggressive and mailed fist attitude to
peaceful and persuasive handling of agitating groups. This change in police
methodology has meant the involvement of a much larger number of police
personnel to handle a given public order situation as compared to
pre-Independence situation. This has, in turn, meant the deployment of a larger
number of Constables for interacting with the public and securing their
cooperation by persuasion and appeal for maintaining public order. This is a job
which the Constabulary visualised by the 1902 Police Commission were not
expected to perform in the old days.
1.18
Besides crimes arising from public order situations, other professional
crimes relating to property have also increased enormously. Though we have good
reasons to believe that a good deal of reported crime is not recorded in police
stations, even the total recorded crimes cognisable by the police under the
Indian Penal Code which stood at 5.56 lakhs in 1954 rose to 13.54 lakhs in 1977.
Coupled with the increase of crimes there has also been increase in the number
of cases pending in courts year after year. Compared to 1.9 lakh cases which
were pending disposal in courts in 1962 there were 19.7 lakh cases pending in
courts in 1975. Phenomenal increase in crimes for investigation coupled with
increasing demands on the time of the investigating officers by the cases
pending in courts has necessitated the employment of Constabulary on inquiry and
investigative work in a much larger measure than visualised by the 1902
Commission.
1.19
Apart from the tremendous increase in the sheer volume of crime work as
such, there has also been a distinct change in the quality of police tasks under
the compulsions of the fast developing society. In its efforts to bring about
the social changes envisaged in the constitution, Government has been
systematically adding new laws, rules and regulations through social legislation
year after year. A variety of legal measures have also been adopted to deal with
economic offenders who evade the requirements of fiscal laws which are meant to
protect the nation's economy and preserve its financial health. Increased
urbanisation and phenomenal growth of vehicular traffic in urban areas, have
naturally given rise to violations of traffic laws, and connected regulations,
by increasing number of people who are otherwise law-abiding. Police involvement
in the handling of social and economic offences as also traffic violations has
meant increased confrontation with a wholly different class of
offenders-different from the normal professional property criminal or the
rustic, violent goonda. A police force which is used to rough and tough methods
has to change its style while dealing with this new class of offenders and every
situation connected with them has to be handled with tact and finesse, with due
regard to the requirements of law. On the side of police it is the Constabulary
who come into contact with a large number of offenders of this category,
particularly the traffic offenders, and to that extent the Constable's style of
functioning has had to change substantially.
1-20
It is thus seen that the Constable of the present day has moved far from
the predominently mechanical role assigned to him by the 1902 Commission and has
now to interact with the public in larger numbers in a variety of situations
where he has to apply his mind, exercise his judgment, use his powers of
persuasion and appeal and enforce law with public understanding and cooperation.
It is the constabulary who form the cutting edge of police administration and
face the public most during their visits to police stations and movement on
roads. It is the Constable's behaviour and response which create the first and
foremost impact on the public mind. The police image in the country is largely
determined by the staff who function at the police station level. The
Constabulary constitute a large majority of this staff and form the foundation
and base for the entire police structure. Any attempt at a meaningful police
reform has necessarily to start at their level only, since no restructuring of
the system will be practicable or enduring unless the mass base of the system is
rendered healthy and efficient. We have, therefore, taken up the Constable's
personality, status and role in police as the subject of our first study. Our
analysis in this regard is furnished in the following chapters.
