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Nithari was avoidable: SC
S.S. Negi
Legal Correspondent

New Delhi, January 11
The Supreme Court today rejected the plea of states seeking review of some provisions of its seven-point order on police reforms and longer time to implement the rest in view of the Assembly elections. Rapping the Uttar Pradesh government counsel, the Bench said that had the reforms been put in place earlier, incidents like Nithari would not have occurred.

The apex court also rejected constitution of the National Security Committee by the Centre. The Bench of Chief Justice Y.K. Sabharwal and Mr Justices  C.K. Thakker and R.V. Raveendran directed the Union Government to set up the National Security Commission (NSC) as per its order.

The UP government counsel Mr Rajiv Dhawan referred to the Nithari killings to challenge the apex court order on minimum fixed tenure for police officers of the level of SHO to DGP, claiming that if this mechanism was in place, the suspension of the officer in-charge of the police station and senior officers of the district would not have been possible.Rapping Mr Dhawan, the Bench said, “Maybe, had these checks and balances been there, Nithari would not have happened.

We don’t want to comment on it as investigation is in progress. These direction may tackle similar happenings throughout the country.” When the counsels for almost all states pressed for more time to implement the Bench’s September 22 order to implement police reforms, the court allowed time up to March 31 in respect of three directives — setting up the State Security Commission, separation of investigation wings from law and order and creating a Police Complaint Authority — ordering immediate implementation of the other three provisions.

The court said the NSC set up with the Home Minister as its head, and National Security Adviser, Cabinet Secretary, Home Secretary and Intelligence Bureau Director as its members, was not as per its directives, which provided for inclusion of two independent security experts.

The review of the order could not be allowed under the “garb of modification”, the court said and directed the Cabinet Secretary and Chief Secretaries of the states and Union Territory to file their affidavits on compliance of today’s order by April 10. It reminded the states that when the arguments on the petition for implementing police reforms were heard by it before issuing directions in the main judgement, none of them had taken up the current objections.