Police – Interstate Coordination(India) – Random Thought

What this session covered

This short session, presented as the speaker's thought for the month, is a recorded reflection by a single speaker rather than a panel discussion. It addresses the state of coordination between police forces in India, beginning from the constitutional position that police is a state subject and that police functioning is still governed by the Police Act of 1861. The speaker noted that conflicting situations had recently arisen both between the police forces of different states and between state police forces and the Central Bureau of Investigation, with some states having withdrawn the general consent given earlier to the CBI and now requiring permission on a case-to-case basis before it may investigate within their territory.

Two recent episodes were offered as illustrations. In the first, Punjab Police arrested a Delhi-based leader of a political party; a counter-case of abduction and kidnapping was then registered in Delhi, where it was alleged that the practice of informing the local police before an arrest had not been observed, and the Punjab escort bringing the accused back was intercepted en route by Haryana Police at the request of the Delhi Police, who took charge of the accused. The dispute was subsequently taken to the High Court, and the speaker observed that matters could have turned dangerous had any officer on the spot reacted temperamentally during the handover. In the second episode, a jailed gangster was made available to the Delhi Police for interrogation, while the Punjab Police, who wanted him in connection with a murder investigation in Punjab, obtained access only much later.

The speaker argued that such face-offs reflect a breakdown of mutual courtesy between forces, work only to the advantage of criminals, and considerably weaken the effectiveness of the police in dealing with law and order. The proposal put forward was a mechanism for coordination between state police forces on the lines of Interpol — a new national agency, tentatively styled India Pol — which, in the speaker's view, could improve coordination without disturbing the federal scheme or the constitutional status of police as a state subject. The session closes not with a conclusion but with an invitation to viewers to reflect on whether such a system should be created.

Key points raised

• The session is a single-speaker monologue arguing that recent frictions between state police forces, and between state forces and the CBI, expose the absence of any coordination mechanism in a system where police remains a state subject governed by the Police Act of 1861.
• The withdrawal by some states of general consent to the CBI, requiring case-to-case permission for investigations, was cited as part of the wider coordination problem.
• The interception of a Punjab Police escort by Haryana Police at Delhi Police's request, following the arrest of a Delhi-based political party leader, was presented as an example of forces working against one another, with the dispute taken to the High Court.
• Delayed access for Punjab Police to a jailed gangster wanted in a murder investigation, after another force had been permitted to interrogate him, was offered as a second illustration.
• The speaker argued that such face-offs benefit criminals and weaken policing, and proposed a national coordination agency on the lines of Interpol that would leave the federal scheme and police's status as a state subject intact.
• The session ends as an open question to the audience on whether such an agency should be created, not as a settled recommendation.