The State Security Commission (SSC) was set up to insulate the police from interference by the government of the day. In 2006 the Supreme Court directed all states to set up SSCs which should be chaired by the Chief/Home Minister and include the DGP as its Secretary and the Leader of the Opposition as one of the members, to ensure bipartisanship. The Court directed that the other members on the Commission were to be chosen such that the body is “able to function independent of government control”. The function of SSCs would “include laying down the broad policies and giving directions for the performance of the preventive tasks and service-oriented functions of the police, evaluation of the performance of the state police and preparing a report thereon for placing before the state legislature. To fulfil its policy-making and performance evaluation mandate, the composition of the SSC needed to offset the powerful interests of the government. The Soli Sorabjee Committee recommended that SSCs have five non-political persons of proven reputation for integrity and competence from the fields of academia, law, public administration, media or NGOs, appointed on the recommendation of a Selection Panel. The Selection Panel would comprise a retired High Court Judge, Chairperson of the State Public Service Commission and Chairperson of State Human Rights Commission.
A study commissioned by the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), New Delhi titled”, “State Security Commissions: Bringing Little to the Table – A study of Police Oversight in India, researched and written by Anirudha Nagar has interesting findings on Meghalaya. The study conducted in 2014 found that the Meghalaya SSC held five meetings since it was set up and basically had only one meeting a year – on 11 August 2011, 5 December 2011, 18 October 2012, 2 March 2013 and 18 July 2013 Also Meghalaya does not have a State Police Complaints Authority (PCA) which is tasked with handling complaints of misconduct made against the police. The PCAs are the second accountability mechanism recommended by the Supreme Court in the Prakash Singh case, and were to be chaired by retired High Court Judges.
Unfortunately, looking at the numbers, profiles and selection processes of the “independent” members on the SSCs, it becomes clear that there is no arms-length process of selection. The research states, “Meghalaya’s selection panel is the least independent, with three members of the Commission itself on the panel – the Chief Secretary, Home Secretary and DGP. Interestingly the two non-political persons of proven reputation for integrity and competence from the fields mentioned zeroed in on former Chief Secretary P J Bazeley, IAS (Retired) and V G K Kynta, Senior Advocate, Meghalaya High Court. The question is where and how is the civil society voice represented here? And why this propensity to pick up retired bureaucrats? This is a great disservice to the State Security Commission and to policing in Meghalaya.
