{"id":34785,"date":"2018-10-31T13:18:30","date_gmt":"2018-10-31T07:48:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=34785"},"modified":"2018-10-31T13:18:30","modified_gmt":"2018-10-31T07:48:30","slug":"awaiting-police-reforms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/awaiting-police-reforms\/","title":{"rendered":"Awaiting police reforms:\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/todays-paper\/tp-opinion\/awaiting-police-reforms\/article19793527.ece\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Awaiting police reforms<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Context <\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Strong public opinion can move the political class in India to implement the 2006 Supreme Court directives. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Background<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Indian Police Foundation was inaugurated to mount pressure on State governments to implement the directions of the Supreme Court on <\/span>police reforms (Prakash Singh v. Union of India).<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The court in 2006 had issued seven binding directions to implement those reforms. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It took the court a little over 10 years to give its verdict on the writ petition filed by Prakash Singh and me in 1996. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Eleven years have passed, but States have taken only some grudging steps to implement the reforms. <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Political stronghold over police<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The fact is that political authorities still have a stronghold over the police.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The result is that the police even today is not trusted by the people. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They perceive the force as being partisan, politicised, and generally not very competent. <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Importance of implementing Lokpal<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Much of the problem would not have been if the 2013 Lokpal legislation was put in place. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Lokpal would have the powers to oversee the CBI\u2019s work and would ease the burden of the court. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ultimately, it is only strong public opinion that can move the political class to implement the 2006 directives. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But the police has to set examples to win public trust. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Reform must start at home. Since the political class has a vested interest in the present system, no amount of pressure will work. <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Conclusion <\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We will have to fall back on the judiciary, which wants an impartial and professional police force because it knows that the criminal justice system cannot function without a healthy police and investigative agency.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Awaiting police reforms:\u00a0 Context Strong public opinion can move the political class in India to implement the 2006 Supreme Court directives. Background The Indian Police Foundation was inaugurated to mount pressure on State governments to implement the directions of the Supreme Court on police reforms (Prakash Singh v. Union of India). The court in 2006&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/awaiting-police-reforms\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Awaiting police reforms:\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-test-1","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704801753},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34785\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}