Police Commissioners, District Magistrates think they are Gods: Gujarat High Court

The Gujarat High Court on Friday pulled up the State government for its failure to create adequate awareness about the State Police Complaints Authority (SPCA) a cell for lodging complaints against errant police officers [Suo Motu vs State of Gujarat]..The Court added that citizens cannot be expected to directly approach a police station or the District Magistrate to lodge their complaints, particularly since District Magistrates and Commissioners of Police often behave like they are "Gods" or "Kings."."Nobody can stand outside your office. Do you expect an ordinary citizen to stand outside your office? Who will allow them to enter your office? Your DM and Commissioner think they are Gods. They behave like God and King," a visibly irked Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal remarked. .The division bench of Chief Justice Agarwal and Justice Aniruddha Mayee noted that though the State has established an authority to receive complaints about police officers, hardly anyone knew about this mechanism. Creating such an authority is not enough as no one knows where to go and whom to contact for lodging a complaint, the Court said. .Address government pleader Manisha Luvkumar-Shah who appeared for the State government, the Chief Justice added,"These are harsh ground realities and everybody knows it. For an ordinary citizen to enter into a police station or in the office of Commissioner or DM it is completely beyond reach. We both (the judges) have been ordinary citizens at one point of time and we know the ground realities and we have our personal experiences with the police authorities.".The bench, therefore, ordered the State to comply with Supreme Court directions concerning the creation of police complaint cells in full letter and spirit."You need to tell citizens where to go, how to go and whom to contact (for lodging complaints against police)," the Court said..The Court was dealing with a suo motu Public Interest Litigation (PIL) initiated after a couple was harassed and extorted into giving ₹60,000 to cops who found them travelling late at night. .Gujarat High Court takes suo motu note of traffic cops extorting ₹60,000 from Ahmedabad couple travelling late at night.The Court had earlier ordered the State to come up with helpline numbers for citizens to lodge complaints against errant public servants including the police. The bench had also asked the authority to give wide publicity to these helpline numbers..Accordingly, the government pleader submitted an affidavit which said that the State had put up helpline numbers in various places including in autorickshaws and cabs.The bench, however, noted that the State had displayed three helpline numbers (100, 112 and 1064) together while asking people to call the said numbers for lodging complaints."1064 is a dedicated helpline is for lodging complaint of corruption against the public servants including police. There is no clarity. It cannot be tagged with 100 and 112. It needs to be displayed separately with a clear cut instruction that in case of complaints of corruption and atrocities by public servants dial this number," the bench said..The Court opined that the State appeared to be scared that people would call 1064 since the said number was not displayed in autorickshaws and cabs as suggested by the Court earlier."You are creating a camouflage, your information is nothing but a camouflage," the bench said.