REFORMS IN THE POLICE INVESTIGATION METHODS IN INDIA Authored by: Meenakshi Singh* * 3rd Year BBA LLB Student, School of Law, Christ (Deemed to be) University THEORETICAL BACKGROUND The Police Act of 1861 is the statutory basis for the Indian Police. The concept of a Police System was first envisaged by the British and as result the carefully structured and organised Police Act, 1861 came into being. Entry 2 of the State List provides for the Police force in India. 1 As per Entry 80 of the Union List, the Centre has powers to extend the jurisdiction of police officers of one State to another State provided the latter State consents to it. The All India Service of The Indian Police Service, IPS officer is a constitutional post. 2 An IPS officer of Director General Rank is the head of the Police Force in every State. Section 23 of the Act talks about the duties of every police officer which are as follows: To obey all orders given to him by competent authority. To gather intelligence affecting public peace. To prevent the occurrences of offences including public nuisance. To bring justice to society. To apprehend all persons legally authorized to be apprehended. It is legal for a police officer to enter without warrant any drinking shop gaming-house or other place of resort of loose and disorderly characters. 3 1 Schedule 7, Constitution of India 2 Article 312, Constitution of India 3 Section 23 Police Act, 1861 47 P a g e JOURNAL ON CONTEMPORARY ISSUES OF LAW [JCIL]
INTRODUCTION Investigation has been defined under Section 2(h) of the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973. It includes all the proceedings under the Code for the collection of evidence conducted by a police officer or by any person (other than a Magistrate) who is authorized by a Magistrate in this behalf. 4 In the case of Union of India vs. Prakash P. Hinduja & Anr., the Supreme Court held that investigation generally includes a) moving to the spot where the offence has been committed (b) discovery of facts of the case (c)discovery & arrest of suspects (d)collection of evidence relating to the offence which includes examining of relevant people and the search of places and seizure of relevant property/objects( e) deciding on the basis of the collected materials if prima facie there exists a case and the steps to be taken to file a charge sheet for the same. 5 Failure to carry out sound investigation by the Police can prove fatal to any case. Some of the consequences of investigation failure are as follows: a) Wrongful Acquittal: Often due to the lack of evidences collected by the Police against the suspects or due to poor and archaic methods of conducting investigations, the real culprit gets wrongfully acquitted. As it is famously said one cannot be said to have committed a crime if he cannot be punished for it. Therefore even in cases where the police are aware of the real culprits, yet due to faulty investigations by them resulting in inability to collect the required evidences for conviction, the magistrate is compelled to free the accused. b) Wrongful Conviction: Lack of proper investigation can not only free the actual culprits but can also result in the conviction of innocents. If the Police officials lack investigating skills then they are likely to assume innocents to be the culprits due to their poor deduction skills. They may also carry out investigations with certain biases in their mind thereby restricting themselves into looking for evidence which only supports/appeals to their theory. 4 Code Of Criminal Procedure, 1973 5 Union of India vs. Prakash P. Hinduja & Anr. 2003 (6) SCC 195 48 P a g e JOURNAL ON CONTEMPORARY ISSUES OF LAW [JCIL]
All the above mentioned consequences of poor investigation ultimately leads to wastage of the Court s precious time by dragging the case for years together and in the process denying justice to those who are in need of it. In most cases it is seen that the mid-level police officers i.e. inspectors, Senior inspectors, Deputy Superintendent of Police and even the superintendent of Police are burdened with other activities that slows down the process of speedy investigation thereby slowing down the rate of disposal of cases. The obvious question that now arises is as to why Inspectors and other mid-level police officers are unable to carry out their tasks efficiently. It is true that certain officers show laid back attitude in their work however their overburdening with other responsibilities cannot be neglected. A most common task that preoccupies these officers is VVIP duty wherein State Govt officers are expected to provide VVIPs such as various ministers, foreign dignitaries security in terms of manpower, escort/pilot (convoy) vehicles and other support. 6 This takes up most of their time thereby hampering the time devoted for investigation. In the case of Joseph Kuncheria Marattukulam vs. State of Kerala and Ors., responding to the growing number of petitions from citizens to transfer investigation of their cases from State Police to the CBI, Js Thomas P. Joseph opined that the State Government had enough capable officers to carry out sound investigation but they were often looking into other duties such as VVIP security and Law & order problems. 7 Hence there exists an urgent need to create a bifurcation in the Law and Order wings and the investigation Wings in the Police System in India. This division was also one of the many suggestions made by the Malimath Committee Report on the Reforms in the Criminal Justice System. 8 At present, there may arise two arguments that would oppose the argument in favour of the need for bifurcation of purpose specific wings in the India Police System. They are as follows: Inadequate staff 6 (Functions, Roles and Duties of Police in General, 2006) 7 WP (C). No. 685 of 2011 (I) 8 (Malimath Committee Report 2006) Reforms in Criminal Justice Administration 49 P a g e JOURNAL ON CONTEMPORARY ISSUES OF LAW [JCIL]
Overlapping of functions of the Investigative wing with the already present Central and State departments for investigation i.e. the CBI and CID respectively. Addressing the former counter claim, it is contended that the bifurcation of the two wings will in fact solve the issue of shortage of staff in the Police department. The qualification required to enter the Police system in India from the lowest possible level i.e. from Constable Level is to be 10 th passed and to be able to clear a physical examination which tests the aspiring candidate s physical fitness including the required height, built etc. In order to join the system from the top most level possible, i.e. to become an IPS officer, one needs to clear the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) examination and also qualify the 6 months of physical training undergone at Sardar Vallabhai Patel National Police Training Academy, Hyderabad. 9 If today there exists an acute shortage of manpower in the Police Force then the reasons for it can be attributed to the rigid selection criteria which requires candidates to be both aptly educated and physically fit. Many candidates fail to fulfil both the required criteria. If at all the existing Investigative wings were to be bifurcated from the Law and Order wings then the selection criteria could also be relaxed. Those applying for the Investigative Wing would only be required to posses the adequate educational qualifications coupled with manageable physical fitness which is not of substantive amount. Thus by making the selection criteria specific to the Wing being applied for, the number of people joining the police Force will also increase thereby filling in for the shortage. When one talks of separating the Law & Order Wing from the Investigation Wing, the evident problem that may arise is the overlapping of functions between the Investigative Wing with those departments that are exclusively meant for Investigation purpose. Such departments exist at both the Central as well as the State Government level. Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) at the Central level and the Central Investigation Department (CID) at the State level. Entry into these departments is facilitated either through the UPSC examinations or through deputation into these departments from the Police working for their respective State Governments. The CBI or the CID often takes up cases after the local police have already investigated them for a considerable length of time. Due to delay in the investigation time line a lot of material evidence is often destroyed or disappeared. As a result, in most of the cases the accused takes the benefit of 9 Available at (https://www.iaspaper.net/how-to-become-an-ips-officer/, 2018) 50 P a g e JOURNAL ON CONTEMPORARY ISSUES OF LAW [JCIL]
this time gap to escape conviction. In the case of Siddhartha Vashist alias Manu Sharma vs. National Capital Territory of Delhi 10 the statements of eye witnesses were not recorded at time. Consequently a lot of violence had erupted which conveniently provided the suspects an opportunity to escape due to delay in recording of statements. The Supreme Court had held that the delayed testimony of the said witnesses could not be considered as valid evidence as mentioned under the Evidence Act, 1872. 11 Hence if at all the Investigation Wing were to be bifurcated from the law & order wing, the need to transfer the cases to the CBI/CID would not arise in the first place. Even if the case were to be transferred, the delay in the process of adjudication wouldn t happen as different set of officers would then be in charge of different functions. SUGGESTIONS TO IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF POLICE INVESTIGATION a) There is a shortage of education programs that focus on investigation mechanisms. Higher educational institutions need to design curriculums that teach advanced methods of investigation to students so that candidates seeking to join the Police possess the necessary expertise in the field even before joining the force. b) At the same time the senior police officers having years of experience in carrying out investigation and being well versed with the nuances of investigation need to be assigned to provide necessary training to the rookie officers. c) Many a times it is seen that the I.Os have no personal involvement in the investigation itself. According to the law, if an I.O is in charge of a particular case then he ideally needs to do all the work relating to that case. i.e. the same I.O has to do all the preliminary investigation for the case, arrest suspects, produce them in front of the magistrate, collect necessary evidence and finally file the charge sheet or his final report to the Magistrate or the Charge sheet 12. Howe ever in most of the cases the I.O does all the preliminary investigation and the task of making the final report is assigned 10 Manu Sharma v. State (NCT of Delhi), (2010) 6 SCC 1 11 Section 3, Indian Evidence Act, 1872 12 Section 173, Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 51 P a g e JOURNAL ON CONTEMPORARY ISSUES OF LAW [JCIL]
to the I.O Assistants. 13 As a result there is immense scope for the final report to have numerous discrepancies in it. This ultimately results in the case to be adjourned from time to time due to failure on part of the Police in adequately performing their duties. This needs to be regulated and I.Os need to be made more accountable to their duties. The role of I.O assistants should merely be of a facilitator and nothing more. d) A regular assessment of the performance of the I.O needs to be done. This will nudge them into changing their previous laid back approach in handling any particular case and will force them to take progressive steps towards improving themselves. In the case of Prakash Singh& Ors. Vs. Union of India & Ors., the Supreme Court held that those I.Os who do not stand by the rule of law, on accounts of acts of omissions or wrongful commissions, the guilty police officers would be brought to appropriate action without any delay. 14 e) The investigation wing of the Police department needs to have their own set of officers specializing in particular subject matter. This will help improve the quality of investigation done and the same would be reflected in the number of cases being solved per annum. f) No I.O should be transferred mid-way in the carrying out of investigation of any particular case. This will help save precious time as the new I.O would require time to comprehend working in an all new environment and would have to investigate the case from scratch according to his working methods. Thus as far as possible, transfers should be done only after the complete investigation of any particular case. g) Modern technology and use of scientific devices to aid investigation will help the I.Os in building up full proof concrete cases against the suspects. Development in the infrastructure capability by constructing at least one forensic laboratory in every State will certainly benefit the investigation mechanisms. Currently due to the acute shortage 13 Available at (http://cbi.gov.in/employee/recruitments/index.php) 14 Prakash Singh v. Union of India (2011) PL May S-12 52 P a g e JOURNAL ON CONTEMPORARY ISSUES OF LAW [JCIL]
of forensic laboratories in the country, many cases have been pending before courts at various levels. 15 h) There has to be adequate coordination between the Police Departments of various States and also between the various Police units within the same State. This will help in the speedy disposal of cases due to ease in the means of conducting investigations given that there is cooperation from all the departments. i) In some cases, it is observed that the I.Os lack financial assistance from their respective State Governments to carry out the task of investigation. In few of the economically backward States in India investigation expenses are given by the I.Os themselves out of their own pockets. This serves as a de-motivating factor for I.Os to carry out investigation at all. Therefore a separate fund needs to be created in every State that provides I.Os with financial support from time to time to carry out investigation activities. However this fund needs to be under constant scrutiny by a retired IPS officer in order to avoid misuse by corrupt officials. j) Finally, an I.O needs to be free from all sorts of political pressures and interferences. Many a times, in spite of the I.Os following proper investigation procedures and rules, the case never sees the light of the day due to the political interference in the proceeds of the investigation. This strictly needs to be regulated and politicians attempting to alter the outcome of police investigations should be penalized. CONCLUSION By means of carrying out this research on the present scenario of Police investigations in the country, it can be concluded that it is not a very appealing state of affairs. While the Police Act of 1861 is a comprehensive piece of legislation yet it is archaic and suitable for only its time. The need for amendment in the Act with the changing times is evident. One of the major reasons 15 (https://www.sifsindia.com/aboutus.php) 53 P a g e JOURNAL ON CONTEMPORARY ISSUES OF LAW [JCIL]
causing the investigative failures by the Indian Police was attributed to the lack of separation in the Police investigation wing from the Law & Order wing all though some of the other reasons have also been discussed in the paper. If at all this bifurcation were to take place, then it would strengthen the existing Police system in India and this would also facilitate speedy disposal of cases with minimum possible wrongful convictions and acquittals. Thus the need for rebuilding the existing institution instead of creating additional institutions for the purpose of carrying out investigation has been justified. 54 P a g e JOURNAL ON CONTEMPORARY ISSUES OF LAW [JCIL]