Ease workload of police stations: Karnataka High Court to state government
BENGALURU: Concerned over the volume of work in police stations in the state and Bengaluru in particular, the Karnataka High Court on Thursday felt that the authorities concerned, in consultation with Home Minister, will have to seriously think of having an ‘Expert Committee’ to scientifically work out the allocation of work of each police station, defining the territorial jurisdiction, staff strength, de-linking investigation from law and order, establishment of a training centre in Bengaluru.
Justice A.V. Chandrashekara, who passed several directions while hearing a petition seeking anticipatory bail, has further felt the need for opening of new police stations at the earliest and such other matters incidental to these aspects.
“It need not be reiterated that the police here at Bengaluru are facing many challenges in view of different types of crimes like terrorism, passport violations in view of large number of foreigners studying here, offences connected with drugs, arms, offences against women and children, and so on,” court observed, adding that therefore, the authorities concerned will have to seriously think of re-drawing the jurisdiction of some police stations to provide sufficient work based on the existence of staff strength.
The total number of cases registered in all the police stations in the city from Jan 1, 2015 to November 30, 2015 definitely indicates the immediate necessity of opening new police stations, it said in its order.
It further said in its order, “It is inconceivable as to how Madiwala police station with a sanctioned strength of hardly 106 could handle 2,200 cases registered up to Novermber 30, 2015. Same is the case with MICO Layout police station, HAL police station, HSR Layout police station and other police stations, in which cases registered were more than 400 till November 30, 2015. At the same time, recruitment of Sub Inspector and constables at regular intervals is also an absolute necessity so as to see that the vacancy positions do not remain unfilled for a long time. It need not be reiterated that the selection procedure evolved by the Ministry of Home, Government of Karnataka, to select constables and Sub Inspectors is the most transparent one and the same is being followed by many other states.”
The court also emphasised that one should not forget that a thorough investigation is the foundation of an efficient criminal justice system. “If this gets weakened, edifice of the system becomes weak and thus endangers the public peace and tranquility. purpose of highlighting all these is not to find fault with the Government, but to bring to its notice that some urgent steps are required to bring more credibility to the police system in the State. Experience tells us that a police station even with working strength of 90-100 cannot effectively investigate more than 300 cases a year. The upper limit of a police station insofar as number of cases could be 300 and as already observed, with separate investigation wing in each police
station.”
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