FACULTY OF LAW – JAMIA MILLIA ISLAMIA

PAPER: THE CODE OF CRIMINAL PROCEDURE - I

TOPIC: RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN POLICE AND

PUBLIC

SUBMITTED TO: DR. M. ASAD MALIK

SUBMITTED BY: ANADI GUPTA

ROLL NO. 6

B.A. LL.B HONS./SF-8TH SEMESTER

BATCH: 2017-2022

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 INDEX

INTRODUCTION 1.
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND 4.
COMMUNITY POLICING 5.
POLICE-PUBLIC RELATIONSHIP IN
THE PRESENT SCENARIO 6-10
PEOPLES OPINION ON INDIAN
POLICE 11.
CONCLUSION 12.
BIBLIOGRAPHY 13.

INTRODUCTION

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India was under the control of the British Empire until the middle of the 20th century. The
Britishers established the police system with the intent of managing and expanding their
empire. After independence, India became a self- reliant country and witnessed several
developments, but when it comes to the police administration system, not much change has
been introduced. Due to these changes in the society, this leads to a higher rate of crime,
failure of bureaucrats’ contribution to the administrative processes in India, political parties’
failing manifesto and various other issues in India. But our present police system is not up to
the level to handle such issues. Now highlighting on the public- police relationship, no one
can disagree to the fact that there must be a healthy relationship maintained between the
public and police. It becomes necessary to maintain such a relationship in a welfare state. It is
crucial to secure planned and desired measures of police involvement to make it an
acceptable police operation. In India, which has got independence 70 years back, there is still
a question which exists, whether India has people’s police or ruler’s police or in other the
question is whether the people should rule given according to our Preamble which starts as
“We the People of India” or the rulers whom the people choose should rule 1. According to
our Indian Constitution, it should be the people who rule and the rulers are only our
representatives and also the police should only be people’s police. People will accept the
police only if the actions which they perform are legitimate. For an exceptional
implementation of government policies, it necessary to have public-policy synergy and
cooperation. Various State governments have arranged HelpLine numbers and also
networking of Police Stations with the amenity of on-line registration of complaints and
bilateral sessions with citizens and the police and also Women Mobile Counselling Centers
have been established. In short, public-police relation refers to the on-going and varying
relationship between the communities and police they serve. This comprises of problems of
service, race, relations, the fear instilled by the police, rampage, bribery and exploitation.

Historical background

1 Khosla commission report (1968)

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As we already saw, the police system was established by the Britishers. The ground for
public and police relationship is the Indian Police Act of 1861. But certain states have their
legislations. Section 23 is about the duties of a Police officer which talks about the public-
police relationship. During Britishers rule, the police treated the public in the harshest way
possible. This period was identified by incivility, brutality and cruelty towards the general
public, notably the marginalized branch of societies. The police functioning underwent
discredit and lethargy. At those times, the police public relations were far away from the ideal
state. The reasons why the public always had hatred towards police because of the harshness
the police showed to the public, harsh conduct and inadequacy of courtesy. The attitude of
the police towards the public during the pre-partition days was haughty and discourteous and
thus this hatred still goes on. Mutual faith and courage between public and police for the
preservation of law and order was flawed due to the imperious behavior of the police
fluctuating on harassment and the unnecessary annoyance to which witnesses etc were put.
The Britishers made sure that there always lies a gap between the public and the police so
that the public will always obey the Britishers and this continues till now. There was always a
lack of mutual trust between the police and the public. The major reasons for the distrust
were due to various reasons and they are due to the insensitivity and ignorance of the
community in their civic duties after the independence period, usage of third-degree method,
incivility and impoliteness.

Community policing

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According to International Association of Chiefs of Police Community Policing Committee,
community policing includes the standardized usage of partnership and problem-solving
approaches to aggressively address the circumstances that generate public safety
controversies which includes crime, social chaos, fear of the future crimes. This kind of
policing is a law enforcement approach which has been in existence since the beginning of
the ’80s in the United States. The reason why community policing is more successful than
traditional policing is that community policing predetermines and works towards preventing
the crimes that are going to take place and also this policing emphasizes on creating a safe
and secure social environment set up. The main point where community policing is
successful is this allows the residents to participate in the law enforcement process so that
they can keep their communities safe too. Due to all this, the residents will have a positive
view of the police and they are more supportive. There is an enhanced trust between the
residents and law enforcement. There will be improved communication between the police
and the residents which means more reporting of criminal activities and finally less crime
rate. Even in India, community policing is present from medieval times. When it comes to a
village community, a person who is the village head called the Mukaddam or the village
Sarpanch used to carry out the functions of a police officer in the village and used to preserve
the law and order. During the Mughal era, this kind of policing became secondary because
the main motive of the Sultan was to keep the people under their control and collect revenue.
Again, during the Britishers rule, community policing had lost its meaning. After
independence, the main goal of the government was to maintain law and order and for which
certain states tried implementing community policing. Like, in West Bengal, to deal with
dacoits in the rural areas, the programme known as Village Resistance group was initiated. In
Maharashtra and Gujarat, Gram Rakshak Dal programme was introduced for the same
purpose mentioned above. Some other eminent community policing in India were the Friends
of Police Movement in Ramnad district, Tamil Nadu, Janamaithri Suraksha Padhathi
programme in Kerala for protection of the population of Kerala, Parivar Paramarsh Kendra
programme in Raigarh district, Madhya Pradesh, Trichy Community Policing in Trichy
district, Tamil Nadu Community Liaison Groups programme in Uttarakhand, Gram/Nagar
Raksha Samiti, in Rajnandgaon, Chhattisgarh and many more.

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Public-Police relationship in the present scenario

During the Britishers rule, the relationship was more dictatorial in nature whereby police
orders are given and people have to follow it. There existed a gap between the public and the
police. People always feared the police because the only motive of police was for colonial
interest. But after independence, police reformed the ways they work and always try to be
people-friendly. But the hard fact is, even though the attitude of police has changed as time
passes, still, the attitude of the public towards the police has not changed. Police can work
efficiently only if they get support from the public. But in our present society, people are not
cooperating with police and that is where the problem arises. The various undertaking has
been done to study what opinion does the public have about the police. These surveys
exposed that certain prominent factors why the public have no confidence in the police. Some
of them are listed below.

● Role of Police in maintaining Public Order

In the earlier days, the duty of the police was only to prevent crimes against property and
person and had the fundamental duty of punishing the offenders. But as time passed on,
new crimes emerged, both white-collar crimes and brutal crimes and police had to come
up with new ideas to overcome such crimes. Welfare and developmental programmes can
be launched only if the proper foundation of law and order is laid down. Progress in
society is possible only if there are public peace and tranquillity in the society. The law
and order condition affects the working and structure of administration also having
greater civil and political connotation. Since India is a developing country, it is necessary
to maintain public order, peace and public tranquillity. Police are one among the many
types of machinery that maintains law and order and maintains peace and tranquillity in
the society and the power given to police is given by the respective state government.
Rule of law can be achieved only if police perform their duty of maintaining public order.
But the real question arises whether the police is performing their duty? In the recent
protest against the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act, the police
assaulted the public which caused more issue to the public peace and tranquillity in the
society.

● Prevention of crime
One of the main roles of police is to predict and prevent crimes that are happening in
society. Various studies show that people are slowly coming out of the state of nature
which is described to be of absolute chaos and brutality in the society. People took steps
to choose their representatives and formed the government. This government framed
appropriate rules and regulations and the police are the agency through which the
government makes sure there are peace and order in the society. Peace and public
tranquillity can be maintained only if crimes are being prevented. But nowadays,
democratic countries are being obsessed with the rising rates of crimes and the
lawlessness that is prevalent in society. People feel that police are not adequately
performing their functions. But in reality, police are performing their functions properly
and taking great efforts to prevent the crimes that are happening around in society. The

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 police force activities mainly depend on the type of crime that is being committed and the
method in which these crimes are being committed by the criminals. For example, if the
criminals use firearms to disturb the peace in the society, then the police should be armed
or if the crimes are being committed by the misuse of technology, then the police will
give the authorization to form a special unit which is committed to investigating
cybercrimes. But for the police to work efficiently, the public must co-operate and
support the police as well. For example, in the year 1978, there was a police agitation in
Rourkela, a city in Orissa, where no police were on patrol on nights for nearly a week and
authorities with the help of citizen groups and home guards protected the city. But there
was no increase in crime rates. This proved that police can effectively reduce the crime
rate if the public supports the police. According to Ostrom Elaner, crime is possible only
if the public engages actively. The public will also have to come across past practices and
embrace new practices.

● Human rights Violations

Generally, the role of the police is regulatory and prohibitive in nature and thus people
have an impression on the people that police is interfering in the individual life and
liberty of a people. When there is a violation of the law, then it is the responsibility of the
police to seize the offenders and bring the accused before the court and they will be dealt
by the procedures which are established by law. But there are cases wherein the police
itself is responsible for the human rights violation. The police are known for their
brutality and torture for a very long time. For the confession of crime, police resort to the
extreme level of brutality. No one is spared in this process, whether the person is a man,
woman or even a child. In Tukaram and Anr v State of Maharashtra 2, it was a case of
custodial rape wherein a young tribal girl was raped inside the compound of Desai Ganj
police station in Chandrapur district of Maharashtra by two policemen. Though the
Supreme Court acquitted the accused, there were widespread protest and outcry and it
was after this incident, many changes were introduced in the Indian Penal Code and the
Criminal Code of Procedure through the Criminal Law (Second Amendment) Act, 1983.
In Francis Coralie v Union of India3 case, the Supreme Court held that any manner of
torture or any third-degree treatment upheld by the police is violating human rights and is
offensive of human dignity which is guaranteed under Article 21 of Indian Constitution.
No law or procedure which is violative of human rights can be upheld based on the test of
reasonableness. Such laws are unconstitutional and can be struck down based on being
violative of Article 14 and 21. Therefore, such instances cause loss of faith over the
police as a protector of human rights. According to a study made by Human Rights
Watch, one of the main reason as to why police officials get involved in such violations is
because of extreme working conditions for the police officials. Usually, low ranked
officers are from a poor background. The police have to be on duty 24 X 365. Instead of
making them work in shifts, these low ranked officials are made to work for many hours
which means they are mentally ill. It is the responsibility of the government to improvise

2 1979 S.C.R (1) 810.

3 1981 S.C.R (2) 516.
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the conditions of the police officers which every government who come to power, fail to
do.

● Handling crowds by Police

Psychologists describe crowd to be direct contact people and people in the crowd join
together with different motives but once they join together as a group, the people have a
different pattern of behaviour altogether. In a crowd, there may likely be chances of
people getting into illegal business and disturb the peace which is prevalent in society.
The police have to correctly identify people with bad intention. To effectively control the
crowd, it is necessary to counter-act its sense of anonymity and power and this is possible
through force. By showing the power of the police, the people with the intention to
disturb the peace will prevent themselves. But again, this is not the only resort as the
usage of force can lead to a deterrent effect on the public. The police can take steps
following section 141 to 190 of the Indian Penal Code and section 149 to 151 of the
Criminal Code of Procedure. The Jallikattu issue was widely appreciated for the peaceful
manner in which the students protested. But there are many criticisms against the police
stating that they took advantage over the leaderless crowd. On January 23rd, 2017, police
resorted to force stating that violence has been caused by the anti-social elements present
in the society. This act of police was highly criticized. In the most infamous case of
killing 13 people in a shooting conducted against the people who were against the Sterlite
copper plant in Tuticorin. It is given that people marched towards the collector office
when section 144 of CrPC was in force. Hence, the police resorted to lathi-charge and
suddenly people started throwing stones at police and police intentionally shot the people
at their heads which killed 13 people.

● Senior citizens and Police

One of the main duty of the police is to protect the senior citizens in society and to
prevent any kind of crime against senior citizens. The crimes committed against senior
citizens are increasing at an alarming rate. The people above the age of 60 years are
considered to be one of the vulnerable section in society. Some of the crimes committed
against them are purse snatching, robbery, legal exploitation, economic exploitation,
telemarking fraud, health fraud and real estate fraud etc. Government of India formulated
a national policy on older persons focused on the role of police to prevent crimes against
senior citizens. According to this policy, it was highlighted that the police have to keep a
friendly vigil on elderly couples and protecting the elder citizens against any forms of
crime against them. To ensure the well-being and safety of senior citizens, police go into
frequent patrolling and make sure that the senior citizens who live alone are safe at home.
The Chennai Police are engaged in the process of creating a database on elderly couples
who are staying alone without any kind of support. The details of these people are stored
in this database and police keep the strict observance of the elderly people.

● Women and Police

Women are considered to be the backbone of any community. They play various role in
society without which our society would become incomplete. But the reality is that

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 women are being highly discriminated and women are considered to be one of the most
vulnerable section in society. Various religious principles treat women subservient to
men. Now, women are more reliant on the police with the belief that police would help
the women. The credibility of the police has increased compared to the end of the 20th
century. Earlier, reporting of crimes were very low because if the women go to the police
station to report a crime, there is a high possibility that they would be harassed. There are
many NGO which supports women in reporting crimes and those NGOs make sure the
police take appropriate action. The police have been criticized for using foul language
against the women who come to report the crime. Also, there is very less scope of
employment of women in the police sector. This is viewed to be a great fault in the
administrative system.

● Political interference and police

In a democratic country, each branch of the government must be individually accountable
to the people. It is constitutionally necessary that the people under public service is
accountable to the representatives of the people at the place of state legislative at the state
level and parliament at the central level. We can witness at present the change in the
structure of the society and how the government is going towards a more totalitarian form
of government and police, who is the custodian of the well-established system of
government, are being heavily criticized by such political groups. When there exists a
high level of interference of political working in police administration, there is an
increased division in the police officers based on their political inclination. A police force
may not be directly involved in the political affairs but they have to manage the pressure
and influences built by the higher hierarchical politicized officers disturb the entire
stability. Political favouritism plays a major role in departmental investigation and
punishment proceedings. This influence even affects the appraisals and awards that a
given to the police officers. Even after the 2006 judgement Prakash Singh v Union of
India4, this has not stopped. This case was based on the separation of power which is
contemplated in the constitution. It was held in this case, that all matters regarding the
transfer of officers should be outside the realm of the political atmosphere.

● Communal Riots and police

In case of communal riots, the role of the police is to disperse rioters those who gathered
together at one place, to arrest the troubleshooters, to defend the public property from
arson and raid and prevent spreading to false news. The main role of police in such riots
is to maintain public order, peace and tranquillity in the society. To effectively uphold
law and order in the society, it is necessary that the politicians and bureaucrats’ co-
ordinate with the police. Failure of this has led to people losing their faith in the police.
Prevention of such riots can increase the level of tension in the society and it becomes
necessary for the police to opt for tension management in those areas. The National
Human Rights Commission have a list of complaints against police for the inhuman
actions of the police during the controlling of the communal riot. After independence,

4 Prakash Singh v Union of India,(1996) 42 W.P. 310 (2010)(India)

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after each communal riot, there would be a judicial enquiry on why such riot occurred and
what went wrong in the administration.

● Technological changes and police

The 21st era is marked by technological achievements and this has changed the lifestyle
of mankind. This technology has not only proved to be a great weapon for the layman but
also for criminals. They use technology the most and get the most out of it. The reason
why cyber crimes are increasing in the present society is that the police are not adapting
themselves to the new technological aspects. Police lag behind the criminals when it
comes to technology-related crimes. But at the same time police are trying to cope up and
adapt themselves to the technological evolutions. Technological advancements in the
administrative system play an efficient role in potent and powerful communication
systems, traffic administration, gathering intelligence from various sources and arriving at
administrative solutions. Using the effective use of technology in exposing organized
crimes and fight against terrorism. But the real challenge is that police has to plan within
the budget that is allocated to them and usage of high tech gadgets can be expensive. But
there is a high possibility that the police may misuse the technology to extract the details
of citizens illegally, which amounts to infringing the right to privacy of individuals.
In our present society, people file complaints against police for police harassment while it
is the duty of the police to prevent such harassment. There many laws and remedies for
the citizens who get affected because of police officials. The court has provided certain
guidelines to evade harassment by police wherein, it clearly states that a citizen cannot be
harassed by the police during the course of investigation and has to note down the details
of the investigation which includes the total time of investigation in the station diary. If
any person has been summoned by the police for investigation in the name of complaint
or witness of the incident, then a written summon has to be provided to that person and
this summon is under Section 160 of the Code of Criminal Procedure in which date and
time in which the citizen has to appear for investigation. Preliminary inquiry can be
conducted only if the information obtained in a case does not reveal a cognizable offence
and inquiry can be conducted only up to the extent of obtaining cognizability of the
offense. The cognizability is proved, then FIR or First Information Report has to be filed
by the police. If a police officer fails to file an FIR, then the complainant can report to
Superintendent of Police. The victim can also file a complaint before the magistrate
which will be regarded as private complaint. As per Section 29 of the Indian Police Act,
1861, if the person is harassed by the police due to the failure of police performing his
duty, then the officer can be punished with imprisonment term up to 3 months and can be
penalized by withholding 3 months’ salary. In 2006, police complaint authority was set
up to handle police complaints and improve the manner and structure of the functioning
of the police system. The police can be held liable if he is proved to be engaged in serious
misconduct. In case of PCA complaint, it is necessary that the affected party had to file
the complaint but even person who has witnessed the harassment can file a complaint. If a
police should arrest a person, there should be two documents given, one is inspection
memo and other is memo of arrest. Inspection memo is the physical condition of the

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 arrested person. It is to make sure that police had not physically harassed the arrested
person. Memo of arrest contains the details about the arrest along with the details of the
witnesses. The court advised people, that is better to take along a lawyer while filing a
complaint.

People’s opinion on Indian police

When it comes to public view on police, police are viewed in negative sense. But police are
trying to come up to meet the expectations of the people. The police must promptly perform
their duty so that peace prevails in the society. The maintenance of law and order in
democratic society depends upon the police and public relation and their confidence, but the
mutual trust and confidence between the two do not exist. This distrust was engendered on
account of occasional delays in the registration of cases and the harsh treatment given to the
complaints and suspects. However, the public was as much responsible for this distrust and
their attitude was rather prejudiced and biased against the police. Almost all the political
parties today painted the police as black as possible. Every act of the police was viewed with
suspicion. The causes of distrust of the public for the police were the discourteous and
dishonest behaviour of the police delay in doing justice; non-observance of law and
procedure by them, the resort of third degree methods and the inability of the police to give
adequate protection to the public from anti-social elements.

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Conclusion

To conclude, no one is considered above the law, and all Indian citizens are equal under the
eyes of the law and should not be subject to any discrimination mainly at the hands of police.
Whenever citizens face such kind of barbarity, they should always be aware that there is a
requirement to have a self-awareness of the existent laws as the remedies given to them or
whenever facing such kind of atrocities always discuss with a lawyer. Apart from this, there
is also a provision under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, to file a writ petition in the
High Court and Article 32 of the Constitution of India, to file a writ petition in the Supreme
Court. The Court here issued the guidelines, as needed to be recorded to create a level of
transparency in their work while addressing the same whenever, there is state of conflict
founded and by abiding through Chapter XII of the Code of Criminal Procedure and the
Police Act which explicitly states that every activity related to investigation and as well as the
other activities should have a written record in the police diary or general station diary. By
abiding through the Guidelines here the Police Officials not only create a level of
transparency as well as it will create a faith on the Police Authorities as well as it will deplete
the amount of time which is given by the court, to entertain such kind of cases which are just
being created because of misconducts on the behalf of a Police Personnel, as well it will give
opportunity to the court to address more cases which require much more important time of
the court. This is how the relationship between the public and the police can be enhanced and
maintained.

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