The Hindu

Mangalore, Nov 30: The Supreme Court in its directives on police reforms to States and the Union Government has suggested establishing a police complaint authority in State and district levels to deal with complaints against the police, according to Ebba Martenssson, programme officer of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), a non-governmental organisation She was speaking at a workshop on police reforms, organised by the CHRI, Dakshina Kannada district unit of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) and Karavali Ale media group here on Sunday, Nov 29.

In September 2006, the Supreme Court delivered a judgment in Prakash Singh and Others vs. Union of India and Others case. Then the court directed the Union and State governments to implement seven directives to address some deep-rooted problems as an interim measure before enacting the new police legislation, she said.

As a result, many States had framed new police Acts, which had diluted the apex court’s directions. The Karnataka Draft Police Act, 2007 was similarly flawed and had several provisions that were not compliant with the directives,she alleged. She claimed that about 5 per cent of the complaints with National Human Rights Commission were against the police.