By AH Scott Lyngdoh
Following the gang-rape on a 23 year old innocent girl, the hue and cry has been loud and clear. Hang the rapists, chemical castration or to put it crudely cut off the source of the problem, electrification or life-imprisonment, such is the accumulated anger when crimes against women go unpunished for much too long. Angry demonstrators demand tougher laws, the pitch is so high that even the main accused joins in wishing to be hanged. It seems that cool and rational thinking is also a casualty. The mass upsurge is aimed at the politicians and the police. A prominent journalist aptly described the protests as the core of latent anger which has been suppressed over the years.
A day in the metropolis during 1985 was set aside by the Lt. Governor to discuss the system’s failure wrought by the multiplicity of authorities and overlapping jurisdictions. Law and order rested with the Home Ministry and Lt. Governor not the Delhi Administration, the blurred lines causing malfunctioning between the Union Transport Ministry and the local authority, the Delhi Development Authority versus the Municipal Authority, and more ridiculous of road crossings shared between the Central and Local PWD. The outcome of such deliberations was just a sigh of relief to have met and discussed. It is possible that some of these anomalies have been sorted out, except that law and order remains with the Central Government, and so the point arises why should Sheila Dixit, the Chief Minister come under attack after the gruesome incident, when the fingers should have been directed at the Lt. Governor and the Union Home Ministry.
Much have been said about deep-rooted social attitudes against women as part of the problem, and since such attitudes do not change easily, the nation is in for rougher times, as witnessed in the new year of more rapes and attacks. So what are the remedies, both short and long term, which could be said as lost opportunities. Credit goes to Inderjit Gupta, the Union Home Minister of yesteryears who stood up in Parliament urging that the core to good policing was to act on the recommendations of the eighth reports of the National Police Commission set up in 1979. He added most forcefully, that if only a fraction of the recommendations were implemented, policing in the country would have gone up a notch or two. Anyone who has read the reports, will be astonished at the painstaking efforts and professionalism as reflected in the reports, focused on catching the criminal, aided by modernization of police forces and welfare schemes for the lower ranks. This gift to the Nation was unhappily ignored, till two Director Generals of Police filed a public interest litigation before the Supreme Court as would ensure that state governments implement the NPC recommendations in letter and spirit.
In response, the Supreme Court set up the Ribeiro Committee followed by the Padmanabhaiah Committee, culminating in the issue of seven directives which the states are to implement. In passing these directives the court put on record the deep-rooted problems of politicization, lack of accountability mechanisms and systemic weaknesses that have resulted in poor all round performance and fomented present public dissatisfaction with policing. The seven directives in a nutshell are (i) Constitute a State Security Commission to ensure that the state government does not exercise unwarranted influence on the police, lay down broad policy guidelines, and evaluate the performance of the state police. (ii) Ensure that the DGP is appointed through a merit based transparent process and secure a minimum tenure of two years. (iii) Ensure that other police officers on operational duties (including Superintendents of Police in-charge of a district and Station House Officers in-charge of a police station) are also provided a minimum tenure of two years. (iv) Separate the investigation and law and order functions of the police. (v) Set up a Police Establishment Board (PEB) to decide transfers, postings, promotions and other service related matters of police officers of and below the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Police and make recommendations on the postings and transfers above the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Police. (vi) Set up a Police Complaints Authority (PCA) at state level to inquire into public complaints against police officers of and above the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Police in cases of serious misconduct, including custodial death, grievous hurt, or rape in police custody and at district levels to inquire into public complaints against the police personnel below the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Police in cases of serious misconduct. (vii) Set up a National Security Commission (NSC) at the union level to prepare a panel for selection and placement of Chiefs of the Central Police Organisations (CPO) with a minimum tenure of two years.
Records show that not a single state has fully complied with the directives, so much so that four chief secretaries have been served with show-cause notices. In view of the heightened tensions, and the demand for action all over the country following the death of the Brave-heart, the Supreme Court will come down heavily on the errant states.
Apart from the police aspect, the slow and flawed process of the Criminal Justice System, is to be addressed in its entirety, by adopting the numerous recommendations of the Law Commission of India. The Nation is awake on the plight of women. Violence does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls into the pit which he digs for another. The accused in the instant case, will in all probability get the maximum punishment permissible under law in the quickest time, as imposed by civil society. A time has come to go deep into the minds of crazed individuals for somewhere in their sickness there could be clues to a solution. Altamas Kabir, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court has set the tone by inaugurating the first of five track courts to hear cases of sexual offenses against women, while cautioning against lynch mob mentality. He promised to provide justice in a swift and fair manner so that the faith of the people is once again restored. Such reassurance is a good beginning.
(The author is Chairperson, Meghalaya State Law Commission, formerly Home Minister, Meghalaya and Chief Secretary, Mizoram)