New rule: SPs can’t punish juniors

Geetanjali Gayatri

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 21

Superintendents of Police (SPs) in districts across the state have been reduced to paper tigers and quietly, at that. They have lost their teeth following a government notification which withdraws their penal powers against their subordinates in their respective districts.

This especially assumes significance in the backdrop of rising instances of crime being reported from the state where the police are in the firing line and under pressure without having much authority on men working under them.

Under the notification, the Inspector General (IG) has been empowered to impose penalty on Inspectors in place of SPs, under whose control they work.

With Inspectors heading police stations across the state, this new notification will no longer give the SPs the authority to punish an errant cop with reduction in rank, stoppage of increment or recovery from salary for any pecuniary loss.

Censure or expressing mere disapproval is the only authority they wield against the Inspectors working under them in their respective districts. Sources maintain that the powers of SPs have been diluted to “accommodate the government” as the revision authority for decision on any punishment after the option of the Director General of Police as the appellate authority has been exhausted.

This “government”, in this case, implies the Home Department, which is headed by an IAS officer, police sources have claimed.

Senior police officers see this as a deliberate attempt at weakening the authority of the police chiefs of districts while making them accountable for rising crime. They allege that it has been done on the sly without any consultation with the police top brass.

Field officers are still unaware of any such notification of the government, which is being seen as a fallout of the long-drawn tussle between IAS and IPS officers over a pending notification of Police Rules.

While IAS officers are allegedly trying to wrest more authority and thwart any attempt of IPS officers to turn Haryana into a “police state”, the Police Department is unwilling to cede its authority in law and order situations.

Despite Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar chairing a few meetings and the Home Department, along with the Police Department, finalising the Rules, the notification of Rules had been hanging fire since finalisation in November 2016.

The SPs have pleaded ignorance of any such notification while mincing no words in stating that IAS officers want all the authority when it comes to police matters while they refuse to shoulder the corresponding responsibility.

“I have served in a number of districts as police chief and no Deputy Commissioner has ever chaired a meeting of the road safety committee. As SP, I have held the meetings in all districts I have been posted to. They are not to blame since they head committees they may not know of,” said a police officer.

Insisting that such a notification would wreak havoc on policing in districts, another SP said if he had no control on the force and men working right under him, they had no reason to pay heed to his orders.

“If the hierarchy is tinkered with and the IG is expected to take action against them, we become redundant as far as they are concerned. An IG has five districts under him and he cannot be expected to keep track of the cops at the police station level,” said another officer.

Principal Secretary to CM Rajesh Khullar refused to respond to messages on the need for such a move. Additional Chief Secretary for Home SS Prasad maintained it was not done after he took charge of the department.

DGP BS Sandhu maintained that the matter had just come to light and the Police Department would file a review petition with the Home Department on the matter. He admitted that this would adversely impact policing in districts.